green commuting

Driving a hybrid isn't green enough these days.

Maybe not enough to earn a California HOV lane sticker when you're a solo driver, anyway.

California lawmakers appear ready to up the ante on hybrid car owners who have enjoyed driving solo in the multi-passenger vehicle lanes, the Los Angeles Times reports. Stickers granting that privilege to 85,000 California hybrid drivers are set to expire in January of 2011. Proposals to extend the program would exclude most of the vehicles currently included in the program.

 Instead, lawmakers appear likely to offer the carpool lane exemptions to drivers of vehicles powered by electricity, natural gas or some other alternative fuel. A competing bill would offer it only to drivers of hybrid vehicles achieving fuel economy rates of 65 mpg or better, much higher than the current generation of hybrid cars.

"We're bummed," said Cathy Margolin, president of the 250-member Orange County Prius Club. "I drive from Newport Beach to Torrance to teach four times a week, and it saves me an hour every day on the 405."

-- Rita Hibbard

If we are going to share the road, push the green commute and all, some motorists seriously are going to have to reconsider their attitude toward cyclists. That's what Bill Schneider concludes in New West, and as a longtime cyclist, I have to agree. He points out that the majority of drivers are courteous and get the "share the road" idea, but that a small but dangerous minority seem to viciously hate cyclists and go out of their way to show the hate by throwing bottles, veering close to cyclists at high speeds, yelling obscenities. You get the idea. Worse, speaking from personal experience, you never know when the haters are going to emerge from behind the wheel.

Those who share this point of view, or even sympathize with it, will be pointing out here that cyclists do stupid things.  Not all of them stop at all the stop signs, for example. Sometimes they inconvenience motorists by riding side-by-side in a lane. Highly annoying. Okay. But as Schneider points out, not all drivers obey 100 percent of the road rules. Think about it.  Have you ever seen a driver talking on a cell phone? Rolling through a stop sign? Running a red light? Should we throw missiles at the driver, swerve dangerously close or "tap"  him with our fenders just to each him a lesson? Would that fix things? We call that road rage. It's against the law.

You can tell Schneider and I are on the same page. Read his column. It's a good one.

The conflicts between cyclists and drivers are legendary, but perhaps a little road engineering would help. In Vancouver, B.C., recently, cyclists recently took a confrontational attitude in a ride by members of a controversial bike advocacy group called Critical Mass, active in many cities.

In Boise they're all about cycling as a form of green commuting these days. State Sen. Elliott Werk, who became a bike commuter when gas prices rose, would like to see the state make these changes in the law:

• A 3-feet-to-pass law. The bill would allow motorists to cross the center line, when it's safe, to allow 3 feet of passing distance near cyclists
• A law making it illegal to throw things at or harass cyclists.
•  An extra fine for bicyclists who break traffic laws. When a cyclist gets a ticket, an added $50 fee would assessed. The money would go into a fund to promote bicycling safety and infrastructure improvements.

He's one of five panelist scheduled to attended a workshop today to discuss, including Olympic gold medalist Kristin Armstrong, according to the Idaho Statesman. Yes, that Kristin Armstrong. No, not that Kristin Armstrong.

No job? Gas nearing $3 a gallon? No worries. There's an upside. Drivers are spending less time struck in rush-hour traffic, the first-ever two-year decline in congestion, a national report in today's Denver Post indicates.  LA traffic is improving, but is still the worst nationwide. No surprise there. Some of the details from the report released today by the Texas Transportation Institute: The average U.S. driver languished in rush-hour traffic for 36.1 hours in 2007, down from 36.6 hours in 2006 and a peak of 37.4 hours in 2005. Total wasted fuel also edged lower for the first time, from 2.85 billion gallons in 2006 to 2.81 billion, or roughly three weeks' worth of gas per traveler.