Letter: Legislature should not limit amount of clean fuel vehicles allowed in HOV lanes

I was disappointed in the recent Senate vote in favor of HB23, High Occupancy Vehicle Lane Amendments. This bill limits the number of clean fuel vehicles allowed in Utah's HOV lanes. The reasoning of some of the legislators was that allowing hybrid or electric vehicles in the HOV lanes did not encourage "high occupancy," and that the money earned by selling HOV passes to single-occupant drivers was needed to build more roads.

This reasoning does not make sense. The intent of an HOV lane is to reduce the amount of fuel used by drivers (fewer barrels of oil from the Middle East) and to reduce air pollution emissions from automobiles. The purpose of HOV lanes is not to make money ?— particularly not to make money to build more roads. Selling passes for single-occupancy drivers certainly does not encourage high occupancy.

"Too many" hybrid and electrical vehicles in the HOV lanes would be a wonderful "problem" to have ?— we would have cleaner air and would be reducing our foreign trade deficit. I urge our legislators to vote no on this bill.

Nicola Nelson

North Salt Lake