I was wondering those of you with the HOV stickers traving to SF bay bridge from the berkeley side where from 80-W bound lane, there is a fly over that bypasses the entire toll gates which takes you to the far right side of the metering lights. There is a sign over head that says BUSES ONLY, yet the diamond symbol has the number 3 in it. I used it for the first time yesterday and couldn't belive how much time I saved that I felt guilty doing it. The question I have is I only seen cars with three passengers and have not seen any Hybrids with the HOV stickers using that side of the commuter lane. Maybe I'm not suppose to either. I noticed that my FastTrak transponder doesn't beep when I go through the antennas either. I check the CalTrans link and it doesn't say anything in particular about it.
Thanks!

 

If you have the HOV stickers you are legal in that lane. The sign that says buses only is kind of confusing. It's buses at all times and HOV during commute hours (I think it's now 5am to 10am and 3pm to 7pm).

I wonder about the fastrak sensors. Maybe they haven't activated it yet for the carpool lane. If it didn't beep you got a free pass. The fastrak camera can't see whether you had three people in the car.

 

Yeah, it was definitley the "not hearing the beep" that started making me wonder.....
What you stated makes perfect sense. I just needed the clarity.