Just when you thought it was safe to drive your car again, there are new laws. You may not realize it but in the State of California it can cost you almost $500 if you’re driving in a HOV lane, or Diamond Lane with less than the number of passengers required. Previously, if you had a hybrid automobile they allowed you to drive in the Diamond Lane even if you were driving solo, but that is ending, much to the chagrin of commuters who purposely bought hybrid cars so they could travel in the diamond lane. It seems that whenever the government wants us to do something such as buy a hybrid vehicle to save gasoline and our addiction to foreign oil, or to help prevent air pollution they offer incentives, subsidies, and tax credits. The poor individual who purchases a hybrid car, which generally costs $15,000 more than a similar car of the same type, never knows when those incentives, subsidies, or tax savings might end. Some might think this is rather unfair, as it might be far fairer to merely not offer any of that to them in the first place. You see, in doing this it merely puts a carrot stick out on a pole, one that can never be retrieved, and is taken away, almost as if it is a trick. Now then, whether it is a trick or not, or just the changing of politics is regardless of the point. It appears far too many people had bought hybrid vehicles in Southern California, therefore they were all in the Diamond Lane, and other drivers got upset. So what does the government do? Well, they took it away. There was an interesting reminder recently in the LA Times on July 1, 2011 titled; “July 1 marks start date for a number of new laws in California – A raft of new laws, many related to health and safety, are now in effect,” by Corina Kroll. The article stated; “No carpool lane for hybrid drivers – Solo drivers of hybrid vehicles with yellow Clean Air decals can no longer use carpool lanes. Plug-in hybrids and vehicles with hydrogen internal combustion engines will be issued a green Clean Air decal effective next year. Zero-emission vehicles with a white Clean Air sticker may continue to use the carpool lane until Jan. 1, 2015.” Another new law goes into effect: “Push-to-talk cellphones – Drivers who use push-to-talk cellphones are no longer exempt from the hands-free law that took effect in 2008.” Oh, and this one too; “Donor registry – Drivers license application forms will force Californians to decide if they want to be an organ donor. There was a follow-up story to that rather large article titled; For hybrid drivers, it’s now the past lane – Beginning Friday, drivers of the fuel-efficient cars were kicked out of the carpool lanes and forced to crawl to work with the rest of the solo motorists, by By Abby Sewell, Kate Mather and Ari Bloomekatz, also of the Los Angeles Times (July 2, 2011). The reality is that traffic laws come and go, and they change year after year. Just because something is allowed today, doesn’t mean it will be allowed tomorrow. Some of these laws have phase-ins, and some don’t. It’s hard to say how many people will receive a ticket, not realizing the latest changes. Chances are that people who have hybrid cars are up on technology, and probably will learn about this from their iPhone app of news events, or maybe they won’t and it will have to pay another $500 to learn the hard way. I just hope that you don’t have to learn the hard way. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think.