freeway

Imagine a special sticker that let you use those high-occupancy vehicle lanes, zipping past stop-and-go rush hour traffic, blissfully alone in your car. If you live in California and were one of 85,000 lucky hybrid owners, you know exactly what I'm talking about. In 2005, California decided to open HOV lanes to a limited number of exceptionally low-emission vehicles, as an incentive to buyers to trade in their old cars for a Toyota Prius (any year), Honda Civic Hybrid (any year), or old Honda Insight (1999-2006). California set the number of stickers at 75,000, and the stickers were all...