BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 254|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 254
Author: Jeffries (R), et al
Amended: 6/26/09 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANS. & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 11-0, 6/23/09
AYES: Lowenthal, Huff, Ashburn, DeSaulnier, Harman,
Hollingsworth, Kehoe, Oropeza, Pavley, Simitian, Wolk
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 77-0, 5/21/09 (Consent) - See last page
for vote
SUBJECT : Authorized emergency vehicles: payment of
tolls
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill establishes the circumstances under
which an authorized emergency vehicle is exempt from paying
a toll on a tolled facility.
ANALYSIS : Existing law makes every vehicle using a toll
bridge or toll highway liable for any tolls or other
charges that may be prescribed and prohibits a person from
evading or attempting to evade the payment of those tolls
or charges.
If a vehicle is found, by automated devices (including
CONTINUED
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cameras), by visual observation, or otherwise, to have
evaded a toll, a toll operator shall issue to the
registered owner of the vehicle a notice of toll evasion
violation within 21 days of the violation. The notice must
describe the violation, the approximate time and location
of the violation, the vehicle license plate number, a clear
and concise explanation of the procedures to contest the
violation, and if practicable, the registration expiration
date and the make of the vehicle. If the toll operator is
unable to obtain accurate information concerning the
identity and address of the registered owner within 21 days
of the violation, it shall have an additional 45 calendar
days to issue the notice.
Toll evasion penalties include any late payment penalty,
administrative fee, fine, assessment, and costs of
collection. Existing law limits toll evasion violation
penalties to $100 for the first offense, $250 for a second
within one year, and $500 for each additional violation
within one year.
An authorized emergency vehicle is exempt from most traffic
laws, including speed laws, stopping at signs and signals,
and driving on the right side of the road, under certain
conditions:
This bill:
1 Exempts an authorized emergency vehicle from any
requirement to pay a toll or other charge on a toll
facility if the following conditions are met:
A. The authorized emergency vehicle is properly
displaying an exempt California license plate and
is properly identified or marked as an authorized
emergency vehicle.
B. The vehicle is being driven while responding to
or returning from an urgent or emergency call, is
engaged in an urgent or emergency call or response,
or is engaging in a fire station coverage
assignment directly related to an emergency
response. "Urgent" is defined as an incident or
circumstance that requires an immediate response to
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a public safety-related incident, but does not
warrant the use of emergency warning lights.
"Urgent" does not include personal, commuting,
training, or administrative uses of the vehicle.
C. The driver of the vehicle determines that the
use of the toll facility is likely to improve the
availability or response and arrival time of the
vehicle and the delivery of essential public safety
services.
2. Specifies that #1 above does not exempt authorized
emergency vehicles, when returning form an urgent or
emergency call, or from being engaged in an urgent or
emergency response, or from engaging in a fire station
coverage assignment directly related to an emergency
response, from any requirement to pay a toll or other
charge imposed while traveling on a high-occupancy toll
(HOT) lane.
3. Provides that if a toll facility elects to send a bill
or invoice to the public agency for the use of the
facility by an authorized emergency vehicle that meets
the conditions above, the head of the public agency may
certify in writing that the vehicle was responding to or
returning from an emergency call or response and is
exempt from payment. The letter shall be accepted by
the toll operator in lieu of payment and shall be
considered a public document.
4. Provides that, upon information or belief that an
authorized emergency vehicle did not meet the conditions
to be exempted from liability to pay the toll, the
public agency shall make accessible, upon written
request, to the toll operator the dispatch records or
log books relevant to the time period when the vehicle
was in use on the toll facility.
5. Provides that the provisions of this bill do not
prohibit or amend an agreement into entered between a
public agency and a toll operator that establishes
mutually-agreed upon terms for the use of the facility,
and further provides that they do not preclude a toll
operator from establishing a policy that meet or exceeds
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them. If either party opts out of the agreement, these
provisions do apply, however.
6. Provides that the terms of an agreement between a toll
operator and public agency do not extend to other public
agencies that may use a toll facility in the
jurisdiction of the toll operator when assisting the
public agency that is subject to the agreement.
7. Defines "toll facility" to include a toll road,
high-occupancy vehicle lane, toll bridge, or a vehicular
crossing for which payment of a toll or other charge is
required.
Background
Focus of the debate . The debate on the payment of tolls by
authorized emergency vehicles is less concerned with actual
payment and more focused on the bureaucratic difficulties
in contesting notices of violation. Several public
agencies have agreements with their local toll operators
regarding the payment of tolls and in cases where such
agreements do not exist, public agencies acknowledge that
toll operators often waive the tolls once the operators are
convinced that use of the facility was in response to an
emergency. The process for contesting notices, however,
can be cumbersome and a public agency can accrue numerous
violations and penalties.
Toll facilities in California . The following toll
facilities, including toll bridges, toll roads, and HOT
lanes, are currently in operation in California:
1. Seven state-owned toll bridges in the Bay Area operated
by the Bay Area Toll Authority, including the Antioch,
Benicia-Martinez, Carquinez, Dumbarton, Richmond-San
Rafael, San Francisco-Oakland Bay and San Mateo-Hayward
bridges.
2. The Golden Gate Bridge, operated by the Golden Gate
Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.
3. State Highway Routes (SR) 73, 133, 241, and 261, which
constitutes 67 miles of toll roads in Orange County,
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operated by the Transportation Corridor Agencies, a
joint powers authority.
4. SR 125, a 10-mile toll road privately operated by South
Bay Expressway, Inc., a subsidiary of investment firm
Macquarie.
5. SR 91 Express Lanes, ten miles of HOT lanes in the
median of SR 91 in Orange County, operated by the Orange
County Transportation Authority.
6. I-15 HOT lanes in San Diego County, operated by the San
Diego Association of Governments.
In addition to these, several HOT lane facilities and one
toll road (SR 11 in San Diego County) have been planned or
are in development around the state.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 7/7/09)
California Peace Officers' Association
California Police Chiefs Association
California Special Districts Association
California State Sheriffs' Association
City of Vallejo
City of Murrieta
Peace Officer's Research Association of California
San Bernardino County Fire Department
OPPOSITION : (Verified 7/7/09)
Metropolitan Transportation Commission
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
emergency first responders and their vehicles are routinely
called upon to provide essential services across California
without regard to jurisdictional boundaries. Toll
facilities are operated in various parts in the state.
When responding to an emergency call, emergency vehicles
such as fire trucks and policy vehicles sometimes use these
tolled facilities either because they provide the quickest
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route or because they provide access to the incident.
These vehicles are often issued notices of violation when
using these facilities to respond to an emergency call.
When responding to a large incident that involves many
emergency vehicles, the public agency, such as a fire
department, will receive a significant number of tickets
with penalties for failure to pay a toll.
Contesting these violations requires a public agency to
spend valuable time researching the incident and use of the
vehicle, pulling incident logs, contacting vehicle
operators, and dealing with bureaucracy in order to prove
to the toll operator that their vehicles were responding to
an actual emergency.
By exempting authorized emergency vehicles from the
requirement to pay tolls and by requiring a toll operator
to accept a letter from the head of the public agency
certifying that the vehicle was responding to an emergency
call as sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the vehicle
is indeed exempt, this bill establishes a minimum,
statewide standard regarding the payment of tolls by
emergency service providers and simplifies the process of
contesting violations.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The Metropolitan Transportation
Commission states in opposition, "This bill expands the
conditions under which authorized emergency vehicles are
granted toll free access beyond the existing "emergency"
circumstances commonly and appropriately used by toll
operators statewide, to include "urgent" calls and fire
station coverage assignments. Because these latter two
circumstances would not warrant the use of emergency
warning lights, the bill presents a troubling enforcement
challenge for the California Highway Patrol, as well as a
potential loss of revenue to toll operators statewide.
"Furthermore, the bill sets a troubling precedent of
granting non-emergency toll free access to the state's
high-occupancy toll lanes by authorized emergency vehicles,
undermining the ability to manage traffic in the lanes by
non-carpool vehicles. While the bill specifies that such
access is only limited to vehicles that are responding to,
rather than returning from, emergencies, urgent calls or
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fire station coverage assignments, the CHP would have no
way to determine compliance with this provision."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield,
Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter,
Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon,
DeVore, Duvall, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher,
Fong, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick,
Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill,
Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Krekorian, Lieu,
Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning,
Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, John A. Perez, V. Manuel
Perez, Portantino, Price, Ruskin, Salas, Silva, Skinner,
Smyth, Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson,
Torres, Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, Bass
NO VOTE RECORDED: Fuentes, Nava, Saldana
JJA:do 7/7/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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