Cars are Cars

California's Legislature, in their wisdom, passed a law that would allow certain Hybrid vehicles to use HOV, or car pool lanes. That law couldn't be implemented until the Feds passed legislation. The recent energy bill was just the ticket.

It only cost eight dollars to DMV to get the stickers to allow one to play. I got mine Saturday.

Because every silver lining must have a cloud, this isn't a simple process. How many (of a nice shade of reflective yellow) stickers do you think one would need to communicate to the CHP that you're legally in the car pool lane? One? Two, maybe? How about FOUR! One for the front bumper and one for the back bumper and one each for the rear quarter panels. (That's the part of the car between the back wheels and the back bumper.)

Four stickers! And the two that go on the side of the car are about 7" long and 3" tall at their peak. God awful, non-trivial disfigurement of the car, I tell you.

DMV, of course, doesn't provide an easy way to be contacted. The Air Resources Board, foolishly, provides an 800 number! (800) 242-4450.

I, of course, call to complain about the number and size of the stickers. A polite marketing bureaucrat answers. Her story was, it's a done deal, no one else has complained (my sticker is #127, i.e., no one has complained in the four business hours that had passed since people started getting the stickers.) and we had to make it easy on the CHP to spot us. (There are, by the way THREE MODELS THAT QUALIFY for the program). She wasn't interested in passing on comments in case there's a phase two.

So I put the damn stickers on my car.