Carpool w/OUT Horrible HOV Stickers

[jcaspar]

Remember, the stickers first came out to support people buying the Toyota Prius which really can't be made to look anymore hideous! :smile:

 

[Blastphemy]

What really would be ideal in California (since we're required to have both front and rear license plates) is for EV stickers to go THERE instead of on our bumpers. Then the only grumbling would be that we have to put on a front plate, not that we also have to further ruin the appearance of our car by putting ugly stickers on our bumpers in 3-4 locations.

 

[ryanjm]

What really would be ideal in California (since we're required to have both front and rear license plates) is for EV stickers to go THERE instead of on our bumpers. Then the only grumbling would be that we have to put on a front plate, not that we also have to further ruin the appearance of our car by putting ugly stickers on our bumpers in 3-4 locations.

Arizona uses actual specialized license plates (alternate fuel plates) that, IMO, elegantly accomplish this task. They gain you HOV lane access and they don't require ugly stickers OR front plates there! I wish CA would just adopt this.

 

[liuping]

CA has enough budget problems with millions of people that stamping new plates all of the time doesn't seem like a worthy use of funds.

Stamping new plate would be paid for by the EV owner, so it would cost the state nothing.

There are currently California specialty plates for various special interest groups, including: "Pet Lovers", "Agriculture", "Tahoe" (yes, just for people who like Lake Tahoe), "Yosemite", "Arts", "Veteran", and "Kids". Adding one for EVs would be trivial, and IMHO more important than having one for people who "heart" their kids.

 

[jeffro01]

Stamping new plate would be paid for by the EV owner, so it would cost the state nothing.

There are currently California specialty plates for various special interest groups, including: "Pet Lovers", "Agriculture", "Tahoe" (yes, just for people who like Lake Tahoe), "Yosemite", "Arts", "Veteran", and "Kids". Adding one for EVs would be trivial, and IMHO more important than having one for people who "heart" their kids.

Fair enough. As you can see by my replies I have no issues with the stickers so to me a special plate doesn't really move the needle much...

Jeff

 

[liuping]

Fair enough. As you can see by my replies I have no issues with the stickers so to me a special plate doesn't really move the needle much...

I read most of the posts in the thread, I did not see if you have the stickers on or not, just that you want people to put them on or quit whining.

If you installed them, did you put them in the correct location? All the way up on the quarter panel?

It's even worse on the other side since the "blowing flag shape" is going the wrong way. ;(

For me, a special plate would be infinity preferable to these stickers. It should at least be an alternative for people willing to pay for the replacement plates.

 

[mspohr]

I put just one next to the rear license plate. It's removable. I only use HOV lanes about once a month and no problems so far...( fingers crossed).

 

[jeffro01]

I read most of the posts in the thread, I did not see if you have the stickers on or not, just that you want people to put them on or quit whining.

If you installed them, did you put them in the correct location? All the way up on the quarter panel?

View attachment 108446

It's even worse on the other side since the "blowing flag shape" is going the wrong way. ;(

For me, a special plate would be infinity preferable to these stickers. It should at least be an alternative for people willing to pay for the replacement plates.

I have the green ones on my Volt and yes they are applied exactly how the law requires based on the way I interpreted what I read when I got them. They aren't all the way up on the Volt like your Model S example suggests they should be but they do meet the requirements given to me by the state.

I have them for the Model S but I haven't applied them yet as I need to get a fresh wash and then I plan on putting them on Xpel and then the Xpel on the car so that I can remove them easily should the need ever arise for some unforeseen reason. And before anyone asks, no I haven't driven in the HOV lane without them applied.

Jeff

 

[arnolddeleon]

Remember, the stickers first came out to support people buying the Toyota Prius which really can't be made to look anymore hideous! :smile:

The white CA HOV sticker long predated the Prius. The yellow sticker was created later for the Prius. Someone was smart enough to make the hybrid ones different from the originals so they can have different policies (e.g. the yellow ones are no longer valid). FYI white stickers come in threes (sides and the rear). The yellow and now green ones come in fours (an additional one added for the front). The original white stickers where for BEVs, FCVs and CNG cars. Many of the early cars that had the white stickers were CNG and BEV conversions.

arnold

 

[bonnie]

I read most of the posts in the thread, I did not see if you have the stickers on or not, just that you want people to put them on or quit whining.

If you installed them, did you put them in the correct location? All the way up on the quarter panel?

View attachment 108446

I'm not sure why you're definitively stating that stickers belong up high on the quarter panel. That's not what the CA DMV says about where to place. Their diagram shows it low on the car.

Can you point to where you're getting your information requiring 'all the way up on the quarter panel'? I've never seen that before.

 

[Caligula]

Stamping new plate would be paid for by the EV owner, so it would cost the state nothing.

There are currently California specialty plates for various special interest groups, including: "Pet Lovers", "Agriculture", "Tahoe" (yes, just for people who like Lake Tahoe), "Yosemite", "Arts", "Veteran", and "Kids". Adding one for EVs would be trivial, and IMHO more important than having one for people who "heart" their kids.

Actually said labor for making plates in this state is done by prisoners at 5 cents per hour. It's probably cheaper than making the stickers.

 

[green1]

Actually said labor for making plates in this state is done by prisoners at 5 cents per hour. It's probably cheaper than making the stickers.

The prisoners make 5c/hr, that's not what it costs to do. I can pretty much guarantee it costs more than the stickers, and likely more than it would to make the plates at a factory in china somewhere. It's just that the money is going other places.

 

[Caligula]

The prisoners make 5c/hr, that's not what it costs to do. I can pretty much guarantee it costs more than the stickers, and likely more than it would to make the plates at a factory in china somewhere. It's just that the money is going other places.

I'd love to see your materials cost versus labor costs breakdown here. Do you know what minimum wage is at the moment?

 

[Zybane]

I agree, is that what you guys have up there?

Yes, clean air license plates.

 

[green1]

I'd love to see your materials cost versus labor costs breakdown here. Do you know what minimum wage is at the moment?

I do, however that's irrelevant to the discussion. I haven't found statistics for California, however in Florida it costs $1.71 to manufacture a plate with just black lettering, and $2.82 to manufacture a plate with an image on it. This is using prison labour.

Where I live (Alberta Canada) where no prison labour is involved, license plates cost $1.00 to manufacture our existing plates, and were projected to cost $2.00 if we switched to a fully retro-reflective design (that design has since been scrapped)

Somehow it actually can cost MORE to use the free labour (mostly because of a few factors, lack of incentive to streamline systems and processes, combined with no competitive bidding on contracts, and high overhead involved in the prison workforce program (mostly security programs)) Keep in mind that an industrial scale license plate manufacturing operation requires very little unskilled labour, it's a highly automated process.

Meanwhile, high quality sticker sheets of full retro-reflective material are well under $1.00 per sheet in any volume (I'd suspect in the range of $0.50 or less) so there's little doubt that, regardless, the cost of the stickers is not more than the plates.

 

[liuping]

I'm not sure why you're definitively stating that stickers belong up high on the quarter panel. That's not what the CA DMV says about where to place. Their diagram shows it low on the car.

Can you point to where you're getting your information requiring 'all the way up on the quarter panel'? I've never seen that before.

The quart panels in the diagram is the old style before bumpers typically wrapped around. Unfortunately, our quarter panel does not go that low, but the rule is "on the quarter panel" and "behind the wheel", so most people just ignore the rule and put the on the bumper behind the wheel.

It's another example of the intent vs letter of the law. In this case the letter is silly and out of date, so people ignore it and place it where they think it was intended to be placed.

 

[Blastphemy]

If you installed them, did you put them in the correct location? All the way up on the quarter panel?

View attachment 108446

The quart panels in the diagram is the old style before bumpers typically wrapped around. Unfortunately, our quarter panel does not go that low, but the rule is "on the quarter panel" and "behind the wheel", so most people just ignore the rule and put the on the bumper behind the wheel.

It's another example of the intent vs letter of the law. In this case the letter is silly and out of date, so people ignore it and place it where they think it was intended to be placed.

View attachment 108453

The instructions from the DMV clearly state that one must place the sticker on the bumper, not the quarter panel. Either cite a source to support your assertion (preferably the CA civil code to which you refer), or please concede the point so no one makes the mistake of following the example of your photo. I promise we'll all forgive you for being wrong.

 

[jcaspar]

Thanks! I see from the ARB site that the white stickers predated the Prius by 10 years. Still, it was sad to see CA release the yellow stickers to exclusively support purchasing a foreign product. Japan would never do something that dumb. I stand by my statement on the attractiveness of the Prius!:biggrin:

The white CA HOV sticker long predated the Prius. The yellow sticker was created later for the Prius. Someone was smart enough to make the hybrid ones different from the originals so they can have different policies (e.g. the yellow ones are no longer valid). FYI white stickers come in threes (sides and the rear). The yellow and now green ones come in fours (an additional one added for the front). The original white stickers where for BEVs, FCVs and CNG cars. Many of the early cars that had the white stickers were CNG and BEV conversions.

arnold

 

[liuping]

The instructions from the DMV clearly state that one must place the sticker on the bumper, not the quarter panel. Either cite a source to support your assertion (preferably the CA civil code to which you refer), or please concede the point so no one makes the mistake of following the example of your photo. I promise we'll all forgive you for being wrong.

The small one must go on the bumper. The large ones have to go on the quarter panels. It's in the DMV instructions.

I don't have the civil code number handy, but I did read it a while ago, and I recall it said basically it's up to the DMV to specify the implementation, and the DMV specified "quarter panels" for the big stickers.

I don't recommend anyone actually put them on the quarter panel. I only pointed it out, because it's an example of most people not following the (silly) rules.

So we have a continuum from people placing all 3 stickers including proper quarter panels placement, to 3 stickers w/lower placement, to 3 sticker very low (on the black plastic), to 2 stickers (one side and one rear) to 1 sticker on bumper, to no stickers. And mixed in there are people sticking them on removable wrap or vinyl stickons (I believe that is also illegal, but could not find the reference where I previously saw that)

- - - Updated - - -

edit: Section 5205.5 of the CA vehicle code(Law section) is the closest I've found, and it doesn't even see anything about 3 stickers in there, just that the cars are distinguished by "a decal, label, or other identifiers".

It does say:

(e) (1) For purposes of subdivision (a), the Department of the California Highway Patrol and the department, in consultation with the Department of Transportation, shall design and specify the placement of the decal, label, or other identifier on the vehicle. Each decal, label, or other identifier issued for a vehicle shall display a unique number, which shall be printed on, or affixed to, the vehicle registration.

So I'm good with my interpretation of the intent of the law, and I'll stay with my single rear bumper decal.

 

[Joetnr1]

There's been a couple threads about this. One in the CA forum as well.

Everyone seems to say you MIGHT get pulled over but no one seems to have a legit story of this ever happening. I will continue to travel with no front plate and my HOV stickers in my glove until proven wrong.

If I'm the guy it happens to then hey, I'll be the first one to jump on here and report it.