HOV Stickers

[sgt1372]

HOV stickers are still the best option for identifying single occupancy cars that can use the HOV Lane.

Agreed.

 

[gpsman]

If you own an EV, have a handicap and also have a personalized plate that you've transferred to or bought for the car, only stickers would work for HOV identification and you'd have to use the placard on the mirror for parking in handicapped spaces.

At a large office complex I recently saw "Handicapped EV Parking" stalls.

Extra wide - van accessible - EV parking with L2 charger.

Sign said: "Any vehicle displaying a handicap placard may park here, EV or not EV. Any EV may park here, handicap or not handicap."

Interesting.

 

[jmatero]

You guys need to put stickers on your car for HOV lanes?

Efffff that.

In Ontario, Canada, we get special plates. Green letters.

I would literally forego the use of an HOV lane if I had to put a damn sticker on my car.

Yeah, I thought that too until I moved to Silicon Valley. No stickers, $500ish ticket. And i get to work in under 20 minutes in the HOV lane, 90 mins+ in the regular lanes... all stopped as I fly by. A week of this and I slapped, those stickers right on.

 

[SeanNelson]

Sign said: "Any vehicle displaying a handicap placard may park here, EV or not EV. Any EV may park here, handicap or not handicap."

I really dislike signs that allow cars that aren't actively charging to squat in EV stalls. I think handicapped EV stalls are a great idea, because handicapped people often need those extra-wide spaces to access their vehicles and they should have just as much ability to use EVs as the rest of us. And they may need a longer "grace period" after charging completes before they have to remove their vehicle. But by gum, remove their vehicle they should, when charging is complete.

So handicapped EV stalls are fine, but there needs to be handicapped non-EV stalls as well.

EV stalls are unique because there are no other alternatives for people who need to charge. When my wife was still alive we could almost always find some alternative place to park that gave us enough room to unload her wheelchair even when the handicapped spaces were full.

 

[1975]

Just wondering if any one has experienced problems getting their HOV stickers. When I bought my car from Gilroy Chevy they applied for the sticker using the VIN number and under dealer inventory status. When I bought the car, it was registered under my name, they submitted their application for the stickers on January 10. I have called the DMV in Sacramento and they said no record was found in the system, they said most likely the application was rejected if by the time they processed the paperwork the ownership had changed from Dealer Inventory to a new registered owner. The dealer is clueless about what is happening and keeps telling me the DMV is delayed which is true but others I know have received theirs after about 30-40 days. I submitted another application , but pretty frustrating..

What is every else experiencing.?

 

[dandrewk]

That is exactly what happened to me. My dealership ordered the HOV stickers on 12/22. I purchased the car on 1/08. When the DMV tried to process the application, the car had already been transferred to my name. Thus, it got rejected. When my dealership got the rejection, they overnighted the application to the DMV.

They told me the DMV is about six weeks behind, but there is a possibility that this being a resubmission it may be quicker.

I would call your salesman and ask who handles DMV stuff. Talk directly to that person. I bet we are in the same boat.

 

[devbolt]

Just wondering if any one has experienced problems getting their HOV stickers. When I bought my car from Gilroy Chevy they applied for the sticker using the VIN number and under dealer inventory status. When I bought the car, it was registered under my name, they submitted their application for the stickers on January 10. I have called the DMV in Sacramento and they said no record was found in the system, they said most likely the application was rejected if by the time they processed the paperwork the ownership had changed from Dealer Inventory to a new registered owner. The dealer is clueless about what is happening and keeps telling me the DMV is delayed which is true but others I know have received theirs after about 30-40 days. I submitted another application , but pretty frustrating..

What is every else experiencing.?

I bought my car on Feb 4th. The dealership sent me my HOV stickers on the 9th. I got my registration and plates for the car on the 25th (yesterday). The DMV paperwork that comes with the stickers indicates that my dealership ordered the stickers in late November as soon as they had a VIN (car was a special order, built on 11/23) and the stickers were issued by the DMV on December 15th. Said paperwork also indicates that the dealership is the current owner and no plate is assigned (which makes sense since the registration was issued on the 22nd), but it does show that the stickers are assigned to the VIN for my car.

At some point I will need to transfer the stickers in my name and have it have the correct plate listed. I filled out paperwork for the stickers at the dealership when we bought the car, so preumambly the dealership is doing that bit of transfer paperwork for me. Further complicating things is that I have a personalized plate to go on the car, which I plan to do on Monday at triple-A.

 

[dandrewk]

Do that sooner or later, so call the dealership. In the meantime, if you use an HOV lane that is otherwise a toll lane, or use the HOV lane at a toll booth for reduced fees, make sure you have your FastPass transponder. Absent that, your plates get scanned and they won't have your correct HOV status. You're bound to get a ticket in the mail.

Not sure about the vanity plates, but I'd think those plates are tied to your original plates.

 

[Anonymous]

Leased January 3rd; received HOV from dealer in mid-February

 

[klowenst]

Just wondering if any one has experienced problems getting their HOV stickers. When I bought my car from Gilroy Chevy they applied for the sticker using the VIN number and under dealer inventory status. When I bought the car, it was registered under my name, they submitted their application for the stickers on January 10. I have called the DMV in Sacramento and they said no record was found in the system, they said most likely the application was rejected if by the time they processed the paperwork the ownership had changed from Dealer Inventory to a new registered owner. The dealer is clueless about what is happening and keeps telling me the DMV is delayed which is true but others I know have received theirs after about 30-40 days. I submitted another application , but pretty frustrating..

What is every else experiencing.?

I'm having the exact same experience with the same dealer.

I gave up on them and submitted my own application 2 weeks ago. Still waiting.

 

[gpsman]

Got my white stickers 21 days after I bought the car.
Dealer filed the paperwork for me and paid the $22 fee.

 

[devbolt]

Do that sooner or later, so call the dealership. In the meantime, if you use an HOV lane that is otherwise a toll lane, or use the HOV lane at a toll booth for reduced fees, make sure you have your FastPass transponder. Absent that, your plates get scanned and they won't have your correct HOV status. You're bound to get a ticket in the mail.

Not sure about the vanity plates, but I'd think those plates are tied to your original plates.

Transponder is already in the car, but we have transponders for all our cars as a rule. This is not my first time at this rodeo having gotten yellow stickers back in the day, have green stickers now on a 2012 Plug-in Prius and now the white stickers for the Bolt. I've completed the sticker collection now.

The two previous times I never bothered to update the HOV paperwork to have the right license plate listed and never got popped for a carpool violation when using a carpool lane on the bridges, the express lanes or the lanes in general. I don't think the cameras are focused on the bumpers to detect the stickers, they're just focused on license plates and the transponders.

This time, of course, is a bit different. I did fill out paperwork at the dealer for the stickers, so I think the paperwork is probably to transfer them to my name. I can always take care of the paperwork again when I got to AAA to get my personalized plates transferred to the car and have the correct plate listed for the HOV stickers. Keep in mind that the stickers are tied to the VIN of the car, and not the plates the car has when the stickers are applied for.

Update: Keep in mind I just got my plates in the mail on Saturday, I received the stickers on Friday, so neither have been applied and I haven't had to travel over any bridges or in express lanes...

 

[sgt1372]

Got my white stickers 21 days after I bought the car.
Dealer filed the paperwork for me and paid the $22 fee.

Ditto. As noted in the initial post, I got my Bolt on 2/4 and got my stickers from the dealer on 2/14. Noticed that the HOV application required the plate # to do the transfer. Still waiting to get my plates to fill out the form but I don't think there's any urgent need to do this.

Nice that the dealer paid the fee and didn't add the charge to my lease deal. Glad that I got the stickers before DMV could record the transfer of title on the car, which has apparently held up getting HOV stickers for others.

Anything that limits the need to deal w/DMV (even via AAA) is all the better.

Update: 3/1/17

Just got my plates and can send in my HOV transfer papers now.

 

[dandrewk]

Do that sooner or later, so call the dealership. In the meantime, if you use an HOV lane that is otherwise a toll lane, or use the HOV lane at a toll booth for reduced fees, make sure you have your FastPass transponder. Absent that, your plates get scanned and they won't have your correct HOV status. You're bound to get a ticket in the mail.

Not sure about the vanity plates, but I'd think those plates are tied to your original plates.

The two previous times I never bothered to update the HOV paperwork to have the right license plate listed and never got popped for a carpool violation when using a carpool lane on the bridges, the express lanes or the lanes in general. I don't think the cameras are focused on the bumpers to detect the stickers, they're just focused on license plates and the transponders.

Yes, but as I said, -if- you don't have the transponder in your car, the plates are scanned. If the plates (which are in your name) don't correspond with an associated HOV sticker (which is in your dealership's name), you most likely will get a ticket in the mail. It's probably easy to fix, but still a hassle.

tldr; Make sure your HOV stickers are in your name.

 

[devbolt]

Do that sooner or later, so call the dealership. In the meantime, if you use an HOV lane that is otherwise a toll lane, or use the HOV lane at a toll booth for reduced fees, make sure you have your FastPass transponder. Absent that, your plates get scanned and they won't have your correct HOV status. You're bound to get a ticket in the mail.

Not sure about the vanity plates, but I'd think those plates are tied to your original plates.

The two previous times I never bothered to update the HOV paperwork to have the right license plate listed and never got popped for a carpool violation when using a carpool lane on the bridges, the express lanes or the lanes in general. I don't think the cameras are focused on the bumpers to detect the stickers, they're just focused on license plates and the transponders.

Yes, but as I said, -if- you don't have the transponder in your car, the plates are scanned. If the plates (which are in your name) don't correspond with an associated HOV sticker (which is in your dealership's name), you most likely will get a ticket in the mail. It's probably easy to fix, but still a hassle.

tldr; Make sure your HOV stickers are in your name.

I always have a transponder in all our cars, so no worries there.

HOV stickers are tied to the VIN. Plates are tied to the VIN. If, for some reason, the transponder doesn't get read and they scan the plate, they'll be able to see that the VIN associated with the plate also has an HOV sticker associated with it. I'm not too worried about it, especially since it doesn't seem like I'll be traversing the bridges or the 580 express lanes during commute times anytime soon.

Triple-A was able to assign my personalized plates to the car, but can't process the carpool stickers issue, so I'll be talking to the dealership on Wednesday (when I take the car in to have the Lane Keep Assist system debugged). I suspect I'll be getting new sticker paperwork to show the car is in my name now, but will still need to deal with the personalized plates issue.

 

[sgt1372]

What do they do when you go thru w/o a transponder or plates?

Went thru the 680 toll gate today w/ transponder but no plates; not yet received. The transponder beeped, so it was recorded.

Assume they have no way to track the car w/o the transponder or plates on the car unless they can read the paper reg on the windshield which I think would be unlikely.

 

[SparkE]

What do they do when you go thru w/o a transponder or plates?

They send highway patrol out after you, if one is available.

 

[sgt1372]

What do they do when you go thru w/o a transponder or plates?

They send highway patrol out after you, if one is available.

Seems like they'd have better things to do but I could see that happening.

 

[Anonymous]

The two previous times I never bothered to update the HOV paperwork to have the right license plate listed and never got popped for a carpool violation when using a carpool lane on the bridges, the express lanes or the lanes in general. I don't think the cameras are focused on the bumpers to detect the stickers, they're just focused on license plates and the transponders.

Yes, but as I said, -if- you don't have the transponder in your car, the plates are scanned. If the plates (which are in your name) don't correspond with an associated HOV sticker (which is in your dealership's name), you most likely will get a ticket in the mail. It's probably easy to fix, but still a hassle.

tldr; Make sure your HOV stickers are in your name.

I always have a transponder in all our cars, so no worries there.

HOV stickers are tied to the VIN. Plates are tied to the VIN. If, for some reason, the transponder doesn't get read and they scan the plate, they'll be able to see that the VIN associated with the plate also has an HOV sticker associated with it. I'm not too worried about it, especially since it doesn't seem like I'll be traversing the bridges or the 580 express lanes during commute times anytime soon.

Triple-A was able to assign my personalized plates to the car, but can't process the carpool stickers issue, so I'll be talking to the dealership on Wednesday (when I take the car in to have the Lane Keep Assist system debugged). I suspect I'll be getting new sticker paperwork to show the car is in my name now, but will still need to deal with the personalized plates issue.

I installed the transpondered into the Bolt EV the day I picked it up from the dealer and updated the website as well that day.

I haven't installed the plates or the HOV yet. Maybe I'll go drive the I-10 Express Lanes just for the heck of it and see what happens, since I love experimenting!

 

[devbolt]

Since we live in the Bay Area and frequently take toll bridges, it made sense to put a transponder in each car because we never knew which car we might be taking and we didn't want to have to play swappies all the time. You can have up to three transponders on an account without having to pay a $20 deposit for the transponder.