If you haven't requested or received your California Hybrid HOV sticker yet, you are SOL for 2006. All 75,000 stickers have been distributed. There will be an addition 10,000 stickers available on Jan 1, 2007, but many of those are already spoken for. If you have not yet applied for one, you better do so soon.

Blame it on those damm Prius owners for sucking up all of the stickers. As you know, us HCH owners are a very elite group with a total population here in the US of under 7,000.

For those of you that don't live here in the land of milk and honey (or fruits and nuts, if you prefer), The state will allow solo drivers in certain hybrid cars (essentially the Prius, Civic, and Insight) to use the carpool lanes. But you have to display a sticker and pay an $8 processing fee. This perk is well worth the effort to apply for, especially for the ability to skirt the traffic at rush hour.

Other perks for Hybrid owners here in California include some cities issuing "Free Parking" tags to hybrid owners so they can park for free in municipal parking structures or on the street. No more feeding parking meters!

Just got my '07 about 10 days ago and haven't filled out the application...thanks for the heads-up, OE. Got to this, like tonight.....

hahahaha at the fruits and nuts comments...

could I put my stickers on the very bottom of the glass instead of on the bumpers, or is that a no-no ??

what cities offer the free parking? got a link?

Note to Self: Stay out of assist!

The cities of Los Angeles and San Jose are the 2 that have a program right now. San Francisco is also looking into it.

Los Angeles link:

http://publiccsd.lacity.org/CSD/outs...t/freepark.htm

though not advertised loudly, santa monica does, too. I was skeptical, but tried it in a packed metered parking lot on a weekend. I saw the meter police walking, checking each meter and he was headed my way.

I was gone for 1.5 hours - came back, and no ticket!!

here's other CA perqs:

http://go.ucsusa.org/hybridcenter/incentives.cfm#CA

here's the santa monica confirmation

http://www.driveclean.ca.gov/en/gv/i...incentiveid=36

another - hermosa beach:
Free Metered Parking - Hermosa Beach

Downtown Hermosa Beach offers free metered parking at silver poled meters for vehicles with the Clean Air Decal. Vehicles may park for the maximum time limit designated on the meter. This includes hybrids as long as the state of California recognizes the High Occupancy Vehicle sticker.