Last year the State of Florida passed a law permitting single occupants to ride in HOV lanes with the purchase of a decal. I'm curious...has anyone in FL or other similar states had experiences with police awareness of hybrids? Driving in the HOV lane is a great perk, but not if I'm going to be stopped every so often because the patrolman doesn't recognize the Civic Hybrid (unlike the Prius) at first glance and more likely doesn't see the small decal going by at 60 mph.

I live in Virginia and hybrids are exempt for HOV restrictions here too. We have a special license plate that we have to get in order to use the HOV. I've used the HOV with the hybrid but the HOV was almost as backed up as the regular lanes and at the end of the HOV was a hugh bottleneck because the highway narrows from 4 lane to 3 then to 2. So I haven't used it since.

Presently here in Georgia hybrids are not allowed in the HOV lane.

I'm not sure if I'd use it if it were available given my driving style.

While I'm tooling along on a 5 lane freeway in the far right lane going ~56MPH in a 55 getting ~80MPG at the time, I notice bunched up tailgating cars in the HOV lane going about 75-80MPH.

If it were me in the HOV lane I'd lead a procession of angry drivers or lower my performance down to unacceptable levels.

I'm sure in very heavy traffic that lane would be attractive though.