I purchased my 04 HCH in November of last year. It already had the Clean Air Vehicle stickers installed for use in the HOV lanes. Since November, I have been stopped 3 times by the California Highway Patrol for driving solo in the carpool lanes. Each time they were very apologetic for stopping me but they just did not realize that the Civic was an approved vehicle for HOV use. I guess it just looks too much like an ordinary car compared to the Prius or the Insight. Is anyone else experiencing this. I think they should issue special plates for Hybrid vehicles this way it would make it very easy for police to identify HOV approved vehicles instead of the stickers. BTW I love my HCH. I don't think I can ever go back.

 

Hi;

And Welcome to GreenHybrid the Hybrid Community with Answers:

Terry

 

Did they stop you because they didn't see the stickers? Or did they see them and think you had put them on your car illegally?

Where were you stopped?

My wife was stopped a few times in her Toyota RAV4-EV because the CHP officer didn't realize she had stickers. The white stickers on EVs and CNG vehicles are not placed on the front of the car. Sometimes the CHP has a trap on the carpool entrance to the Bay Bridge in SF. They stand on the road and wave down vehicles as they approach, so they only see the front of the car. The good news is she never got a ticket. They always apologized and let her go. After her first experience, when it happened again she smiled broadly at the officer has he stopped her because she knew he would let her go. That ticked him off, but he still apologized in the end.

 

Two of the times I was stopped at a trap set up at an onramp to the 91 freeway in riverside County. The last time I was stopped while driving in the carpool lane on the 57 freeway in Diamond Bar. The CHP officer, while driving, used his loudspeaker to ask me if I had someone in the back seat. I shook my head NO and said that I had clean air stickers but he could not hear me with his window up. he then made me pull over to the side crossing six lanes of traffic. When he approached my car he was apologetic and said he did not realize the DMV changed the stickers to yellow that they used to be blue. I do not think they have ever been blue. I know that CNG stickers are white but I have never heard of blue being used. Does anyone have some idea why he may have thought this or was he just trying to save face?

 

Save face.
They were never blue.
Maybe some day he will mature and be able to say, "I made a mistake; I'm sorry."

I said Maybe.

 

Private clean air vehicles - EVs and CNGs - have white stickers. Hybrids have yellow stickers (we all know that). Fleet CNG vehicles, mostly taxi cabs, have a blue diamond shaped sticker with CNG printed on it.