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California's Green Carpool Stickers Come to Screeching Halt

The state is no longer issuing green stickers, having reached the 85,000 cap approved by the California Legislature.

(TNS) -- If you are thinking of buying a plug-in hybrid car and getting those coveted green carpool stickers to cruise solo in carpool lanes, forget about it.

For now.

The state is no longer issuing green stickers, having reached the 85,000 cap approved by the California Legislature. The Department of Motor Vehicles will continue to accept applications for a waiting list in case the cap is once again raised.

However, there is no limit on white carpool stickers for electric cars or those running on compressed natural gas. The DMV had issued 92,480 white decals as of Monday.

While there is no pending legislation to increase the number of green stickers, the most recent increase in the decal ceiling was included in last year's state budget legislation.

"It is quite conceivable that this approach may be used again," Metropolitan Transportation Commission spokesman John Goodwin said.

But if the cap holds, "this is not happy news," said Francis Chung, of San Jose, who has been considering a plug-in car to get stickers and ease his commute on Highway 85. "My drive to work now takes me 30 minutes longer each way."

Average speeds on nearly half of the Bay Area's 400 miles of carpool lanes are under 45 mph, failing to meet federal performance standards.

As a result, solo FasTrak users are banned from the Highway 237-Interstate 880 express lanes for up to an hour each morning. Transportation officials say the same restrictions are likely on future express lanes on other Bay Area freeways, such as I-580 in the Livermore Valley, when those open next year.

Nowhere in the Bay Area is the sticker program more popular than in Santa Clara County: Through February, 8,045 of the 19,757 decals on the road in the nine-county region were issued there. Alameda County was next at 3,821, followed by Contra Costa at 2,415 and San Mateo at 1,971.

But there's a downside. The MTC opposed the most recent hike to 85,000 stickers, saying that increases in the allotment hurt efforts to encourage carpooling and get more cars off the road. And regional officials fear that another increase in the cap would hurt efforts to get motorists to pay to drive in express lanes.

"With congestion levels reaching new levels, especially in the prosperous South Bay ... where the purchase of more (electric) vehicles is likely, we should not be giving single-occupant vehicles free access to the region's HOV lanes," MTC executive chief Steve Heminger wrote in a memo. "If left unchecked this program has the potential to undermine the viability of the region's express lane network, a core element of the Bay Area's strategy for improving highway mobility."

Traffic for a year or more on Highway 85 south of I-280 has been so bad the HOV lane is almost as slow as the regular lanes, according to commuter Alan Arndt, who says on some days six of 10 cars have carpool stickers.

"That bonus has certainly paid off around here for encouraging more efficient cars," he said, "but it has also totally clogged the HOV lane."

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The 85,000 limit on green "clean air" decals has been reached. The DMV will continue to accept applications without payment on a waiting list in case the Legislature raises the cap.

Plug-in hybrids were eligible for green stickers, allowing solo drivers to use carpool lanes.

No limit on white carpool decals for electric cars or those that run on compressed natural gas.

Stickers are good until 2019.

©2015 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.