If you're in Los Angeles and have been driving an electric or plug-in electric car because it gets you access to Express Lanes and carpool lanes as a solo driver, we have some bad news for you: The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has just kicked your favorite key green-car incentive to the curb.

According to Green Car Reports, a 10-1 vote by Metro has killed the DMV's "sticker car" provision within the county, although state law still allows for solo drivers whose vehicles sport a white or green decal to use Caltrans' standard carpool lanes. The change will affect motorists on the 110 from South Bay to South LA, as well as a stretch of the I-10 that runs from San Gabriel Valley to LA.

Why did Metro decide to disincentivize electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles? In a word: Traffic. Between the rising popularity of these types of vehicles and the frequency with which the state had been issuing these stickers, the situation had become unmanageable. 

LA freeways

LPettet / Getty

In the bill's place, cars like the PHEV and , , as well as all Tesla models and many other eco vehicles will instead be eligible for a much more modest 15-percent discount on Express Lanes.

Metro board member and city councilman Paul Kerkorian told KTLA Channel 5: "If the question is social equity, I cannot rationalize subsidizing someone who puts their tie on and hops in their Tesla to drive to work, and not subsidizing a guy who throws his tools in the back of his Toyota pickup truck to go to work."

Drivers with existing clean-air stickers will not be charged a toll until later this year -- likely November or December.

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