Vehicles that meet strict clean air requirements are given special white and yellow stickers and allowed to use carpool lanes on California’s freeways. Unfortunately, vehicles with the yellow stickers may find themselves stuck in traffic again soon.
The stickers represent different kinds of vehicle efficiency. To have a white sticker, a car must meet both California’s Super Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle (SULEV) standard for exhaust emissions and the federal Inherently Low-Emission Vehicle (ILEV) evaporative emission standard. Yellow stickers are given to hybrid or alternative fuel cars that reach over 45 miles per gallon at highway speeds.
As we posted earlier, the yellow stickers for hybrids have already been extended once. Their new expiration date is fast approaching. After July 1, 2011, the yellow sticker program will end. The white sticker program will last a bit longer, through January 1, 2015.
Want to cling to the carpool lanes? This might be a good chance to explore casual carpool.
