Thursday, October 1, 2026
The preliminary findings suggest that state and federal officials made a mistake by no longer allowing hybrid and electric vehicles with a single occupant access to high-occupancy vehicle, or HOV, lanes.
We imagine the idea behind this was to try to promote carpooling, but let’s face it: No one in this day and age is carpooling. It’s simply too impractical, and doesn’t fit with people’s flexible, and often uncertain, schedules. (The days of a huge chunk of our workforce going to one centralized location, like Grumman, and working the same hours there, are over.)
When I was in the Assembly, I pushed for allowing electric and hybrid vehicles with just one occupant access to HOV lanes in an effort to encourage the purchase of these cars and trucks. It seemed to work. Many people purchased the vehicles for that purpose, myself included. It shortened the commute for many of them by a half-hour each way. It also took vehicles out of the other lanes, helping non-hybrid/electric vehicles to travel more smoothly as well.
Since the Clean Pass program ended on Oct. 1, we’re hearing reports that people who used to travel in HOV lanes are now having significantly longer commutes each day.
This will lead to the purchase of fewer electric and hybrid vehicles in the first place.
So what’s the purpose of the new rule? Get things back to the old way so that the traffic can flow more smoothly across the board. And if they’re not going to get back to where it was for the hybrid/electrics, then open up all lanes of traffic to everyone. The present situation is the worst possible scenario.
We also can’t understand why the state needs federal permission to do this. While, technically, expressways are part of the federal system, they are maintained by the state. When it comes to federal and state laws, it’s usually the case that the state can’t weaken federal law, but it can often go beyond what the feds enact as a minimum threshold.
Let’s find out. Get a bill in the State Legislature to reopen HOV lanes for electric and hybrid vehicles.
While on the issue of transportation in the region, two other important items need to be addressed. Traffic congestion can be eased not only with a sensible HOV policy, but also by granting Long Island the type of federal aid it so desperately needs. Our Center for Cost Effective Government issued a white paper last year noting that the Island is woefully short-changed compared with areas of similar population.
That’s because the aid we receive comes under the umbrella of federal money directed to the entire metropolitan area. So when federal officials see that tens of billions of dollars are directed to the New York area, they fail to distinguish that the overwhelming majority of it is for New York City transit, with Long Island getting just a few crumbs. If we had a separate metropolitan planning organization, we could be looked at on our own, and be compared with areas such as Chicago and Los Angeles, which get infinitely more money than we do.
There is finally a bill in Albany to correct this inequity. Let’s hope it gets passed quickly.
Our center has also called for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to finally be placed under a financial control board. Each year the MTA seeks higher fares and tax subsidies without implementing any efficiencies to its burdensome work rules and unsustainable pension and salary structures. A financial control board would allow an independent entity to redo these contracts and crazy rules to finally make the MTA more efficient.
Our white paper prompted state legislators to introduce bills to accomplish this goal. All that’s needed is the will from the remaining legislators to get this over the goal line.
Steve Levy is executive director of the Center for Cost Effective Government, a fiscally conservative think tank. He has served as Suffolk County executive, as a state assemblyman and as host of “The Steve Levy Radio Show.” Comments? Costeffectivegov@gmail.com.
