Slugging Vs. Hybrids

Today there was a piece in the Washington Post about how slugging could be a vanishing mode of transportation because Virginia allows drivers of hybrid type vehicles to get on the very low congestion High Occupancy Vehicle lanes without multiple passengers. This really bugged me when I used to slug to work every day. As more and more people buy these hybrid vehicles because of the better gas mileage they get the HOV lanes will become more and more meaningless. The whole point of the lanes was to reduce traffic congestion. Law makers need to keep that in mind when they decide whether or not to continue to allow the hybrid vehicles to drive in the HOV lanes.

The real thing that bites me about this whole issue is that Hybrid cars don’t even provide a low pollution benefit from their electric propulsion when they are traveling at high speeds. When they get going over 50 MPH they pollute just as bad as any other compact car. I think they should be banned from HOV outright. If the idea is to benefit from the reduced pollution levels of vehicles that use electric power…and these cars only use the electric power at slower speeds…than Hybrids should always be stuck in the slower lanes so we can all benefit from the cleaner air!

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