What Are Clean Air Vehicle Decals?

The clean air vehicle decals program is run by DMV in partnership with the California Air Resources Board (CARB). If you drive a vehicle that meets certain emissions standards and other criteria, you may be able to get Clean Air Vehicle (CAV) decals and a CAV decal identification (ID) card, which allow single occupancy use of High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV, or carpool) lanes.
Some HOV stickers may leave nasty adhesive on the paint and take chunks of paint with them or just take hours and hours to remove the adhesive. So, we would like to share with you some tips regarding how to apply for clean air vehicle decals.

Tools you will need:

• Isopropyl alcohol
• Cloth
• Scissor
• A vinyl film with a size bigger than the CAV decal
• Squeegee or credit card

Instructions

Step1 – Clean up the bumper

Use soapy water and cloth to clean your car bumper, then spray some isopropyl alcohol and wipe the surface to dry. This is to make sure there is no residue of your old decals or any grease on the paint.

Step2 – Apply the decal on the vinyl

Peel off your CAV decal from the release paper and apply it to the vinyl film. Many vinyl suppliers offer vinyl material with removable back adhesive, so you don’t need to worry about the residue if you need to remove the CAV stickers in the future.

Step 3 – Cut the vinyl along with the shape of the CAV decal

Use a scissor or razor blade to cut out vinyl around the CAV sticker and pull the excess off.

Step4 – Apply the vinyl sticker

Peel off the backing paper of the vinyl film then apply this decal to your bumper. Use a squeegee or credit card to squeegee the decal so it can be in good contact with the applied surface.

If you going to pull this sticker off five years later or whatever it expires, just pull the vinyl film off and it’s not going to leave the nasty residue.