The Arizona Governor's office annouced a federally authorized pilot project last Friday that allows the Honda Insight and two other hybrid vehicles (the Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius) to use the state's 73 miles of HOV lanes. Owners will need new plates and special permits. In an interesting twist, the state law granting privileges of "bi-fuel" vehicle owners, who have been allowed to ride in HOV lanes, has been changed. The Arizona Department of Transportation said the federal government had been threatening to impose sanctions against the state because its authorization for bi-fuel vehicles does not conform with federal restrictions. Critics of the state law also claim that many of these vehicles - and, in particular large SUVs and pickup trucks - were converted to bi-fuel vehicles purely so the owners could get tax breaks. (For further details, see
this article - thank you to Ken Linger for the link.)
Insight Granted HOV Privileges in Arizona
