My $8.00 check to the DMV was cashed yesterday

My timeline so far:

Jan 18: Mailed application to DMV
Feb 6: Check cleared

Stickers should be here before end of next week.

 

I'm on the phone with CARB right now. Something is definitely wrong....

Great. I sent it to the wrong place. The guy at the DMV told me to drop it in the Express Payment Box, which the lady at CARB told me was VERY wrong. Great....Now I have to start the process over again.

 

what "Express Payment Box"... what do you talk about? dident you mailed the application to the DMV?

 

Got my stickers today! 49xxx.


Timeline

Jan 18: Mailed application to DMV
Feb 6: Check cleared
Feb 10: Received stickers

 

It took me about four weeks to get my stickers. I bought my HCH in late November, applied immediately and got the stickers just before Christmas. My favorite present this year.

My stickers are 38xxx

 

now I'm getting worried... tell me please.. those 49xxx were in hi 49k? or low?

I mailed app Jan 28. looks like I under-estimated the pace of stickers releasing... it looks like its more than 2-3 hundreds a day. its 5-6 hundreds a day... that means I can't make it in the 50k batch...

****... hopefully they will go to 75k and wont stop at 50k... fingers crossed

 

Sad to say, but I think they are coming to a close on the stickers. After 50k, it's my understanding they are taking a 90 day review of the HOV capacity to decide whether to scrap the program, stay at 50k, or push to 75k.

My opinion: Raise the fine for the 15% of traffic that are cheaters, which in turn will help pay for CHP to start patrolling the HOV lanes with motorcycle officers, and then rocket forward to 75k. But nobody listens to little old me.

 

I believe they will continue issuing stickers while doing the review. If the review, which must be completed in 90 days or less (hey, they might do it in two days), finds that there is a negative impact on the HOV lanes THEN they will stop issuing stickers.

From my personal observations, hybrids with stickers in the HOV lanes are few and far between. They barely have an impact. I bet they will go all the way to 75,000.

A couple of other observations -
They forced Bay Area hybrid owners to get Fastrak transponders before applying for stickers. The theory is that hybrids can cross the bridges in the HOV lane but they are not exempt from the toll. So the only way to collect a toll from a vehicle in the HOV lane, without stopping it, is to use Fastrak. But they haven't installed the collection devices in the HOV lanes on the bridges. My transponder has never beeped, and I have never been charged the toll, while using the HOV lane with my hybrid.

Speaking of congestion, the MTC's eagerness to promote Fastrak as a cost saving tool on the bridges has turned into a disaster on the Bay Bridge. They added two more Fastrak lanes a couple of weeks ago. This means that there are 20% fewer regular toll booths into which all the non-Fastrak vehicles have to cram. The result is a mile long backup behind the toll plaza, especially on weekends when more occasional (non Fastrak using) drivers cross the bridge. This penalizes everyone including Fastrak users who get stuck in the backup. After suffering through the backup today, I finally got to the Fastrak lane, sped through, and got to the bridge itself where traffic was as light as it typically is at 2AM.

 

Hello all , do you guys think i will still receive the hov sticker, eventhough i sent my app. on feb. 1,? Where did u guys hear about the 50,000 cap? Hopefully they will keep issuing till it reach 75,000 stickers.

 

read above... it's in the law..