BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1500
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1500 (Lieu)
As Amended May 26, 2010
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |46-31|(June 3, 2009) |SENATE: |25-8 |(June 17, |
| | | | | |2010) |
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Original Committee Reference: TRANS .
SUMMARY : Extends the sunset date on a program granting high
occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane driving privileges to electric
vehicles and natural gas vehicles. Specifically, this bill
extends, until January 1, 2015, the sunset date for the statute
that allows super ultra-low emission vehicles, ultra-low
emission vehicles, inherently low-emission vehicles, whether or
not they have the required number of occupants.
The Senate amendments change the program's sunset date to 2015,
rather than 2016.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Allows the Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and local
authorities to reserve highway lanes within their respective
jurisdictions for the exclusive use of HOVs.
2)Prohibits the operation of single occupant vehicles in HOV
lanes, with the exception of motorcycles and Clean Air
vehicles.
3)Allows the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue 85,000
Clean Air stickers to hybrid vehicles that meet specified
emission criteria and have a fuel economy rating of at least
45 miles per gallon.
4)Allows a vehicle that meets California's super ultra-low
emission vehicle standard for exhaust emissions and the
federal inherently low-emission vehicle evaporative emission
standard, or a vehicle that was produced during the 2004
model-year or earlier and meets California ultra-low emission
vehicle standard for exhaust emissions and the federal
inherently low-emission vehicle evaporative emission standard,
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to operate in an HOV lane without regard to occupancy levels.
(As a practical matter, this means electric and natural
gas-powered vehicles.)
5)Requires DMV to issue Clean Air stickers to vehicles meeting
those standards.
6)Allows single-occupant Clean Air vehicles to operate in HOV
lanes until such time as Caltrans determines that federal law
does not authorize the state to allow such vehicles to use
those lanes.
7)Requires Caltrans to submit a notice of such a determination
to the Secretary of State, at which time HOV lane access
privileges for single occupant Clean Air vehicles would be
terminated.
8)Requires Caltrans to remove individual HOV lanes, or HOV lane
segments, during periods of peak congestion from these access
provisions if it finds that the lane or lane segment exceeds a
level of service C, and that the operation or projected
operation of Clean Air vehicles will significantly increase
HOV lane congestion.
9)Sunsets HOV lane access privileges for Clean Air vehicles when
the Secretary of State receives Caltrans' notification of a
federal ban, or on January 1, 2011, whichever occurs first.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill was substantially similar
to the version passed in the Senate.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee analysis, Caltrans devotes eight staff statewide to
monitor and report on the performance of its 1,300 miles of HOV
lanes pursuant to federal requirements, thus this monitoring
would continue even with the sunset of this program.
Nevertheless, there is some marginal cost, probably under
$150,000, for Caltrans to continue monitoring the additional
impact that the low-emission vehicle privilege has on HOV lane
performance. Furthermore, since the special access to HOV lanes
for hybrid vehicles-which constitute the vast majority of
low-emission vehicles currently allowed special access-will not
be continued past the current sunset date, it is far less likely
that the remaining low emission vehicles in the program would
contribute significantly to any HOV lane congestion.
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COMMENTS : An HOV lane, commonly referred to as a "carpool" or
"diamond" lane, is part of a traffic management strategy
designed to reduce the number of single occupancy vehicles
during peak periods of traffic congestion. These lanes are
intended to provide an incentive for commuters to form carpools
by offering reduced travel times. The declared legislative
intent in establishing these lanes is to relieve traffic
congestion, conserve fuel, and reduce vehicular emissions. Over
the years, advocates for many groups have suggested using HOV
lane access to reward certain behaviors or to ease the commute
for one class of motorists or another. Historically, HOV lane
access has been proposed for doctors, seniors, veterans, the
disabled, and others. These proposals were rejected as being
inconsistent with the original intent of establishing the lanes,
which is to reduce congestion.
Subsequently, AB 71 (Cunneen), Chapter 330, Statutes of 1999,
extended to certain "Clean Air" vehicles the privilege of using
HOV lanes even when required occupancy levels are not met.
Vehicles meeting AB 71's standard are generally limited to
battery-powered vehicles and those operating on compressed
natural gas, neither of which is especially prevalent in
California's vehicle fleet. Proponents of AB 71 contended that
that this bill would induce the purchase and investment in clean
air vehicles, consistent with at least a part of the legislative
intent in authorizing HOV lanes. In light of the relatively
small number of these vehicles, it was felt that the bill's
exemption would have negligible impact on the timesaving benefit
of HOV lanes.
Hybrid vehicles, which have become a popular means by which
vehicle manufacturers may meet consumer demand for fuel
efficiency, do not meet the clean air standard established by AB
71; consequently, their owners and advocates were dismayed that
they were not allowed into HOV lanes. In 2004, therefore, the
Legislature enacted AB 2628 (Pavley), Chapter 725, Statutes of
2004, extending the Clean Air provisions of AB 71 to hybrid
vehicles that achieve 45 miles per gallon fuel economy. Since
allowing large numbers of hybrids into HOV lanes would reduce
the effectiveness of the lanes by compromising their ability to
offer a quicker commute than adjacent mixed-flow lanes, AB 2628
limited the aggregate number of stickers for hybrids to 75,000
and allowed Caltrans to suspend HOV lane privileges for hybrids
on any particular lane that reaches a specified level of
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congestion. AB 2600 (Lieu), Chapter 614, Statutes of 2006,
increased the limit on hybrid stickers to 85,000 and extended AB
2628's 2008 sunset date to 2011. (DMV reached the 85,000
sticker cap for hybrids in February 2007 and is no longer
issuing new hybrid stickers.)
In June of 2007, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
requested Caltrans to submit a plan to address "HOV lane
degradation" on California freeways. Caltrans' analysis had
indicated that 54% of its HOV lanes had experienced such
degradation (i.e., the lane does not maintain 45 mph or greater
operating speed during peak commute hours for 90% or more of 180
consecutive workdays). Recognizing that one component of HOV
lane congestion may be the presence of hybrid vehicles; one of
the options that Caltrans is considering is banning hybrids in
certain HOV lanes, as it is already authorized to do.
This bill would extend, for an additional five years, the
authorization for natural gas and electric vehicles to operate
in HOV lanes but would allow that authorization for hybrids to
sunset as scheduled on January 1, 2011.
As beneficial as hybrids are, by virtue of their reduced
consumption of gasoline, to the state's environment and economy,
it is difficult to articulate a compelling rationale for
allowing their operation in HOV lanes for an additional five
years. The initial impetus for granting this privilege was to
incentivize their purchase. The 85,000 hybrids that are
currently stickered have indeed been purchased. As no
additional stickers are available for issue, HOV lane access is
no longer an incentive to purchase a new hybrid. And as the
automotive industry adjusts its mix of models to meet consumer
demand for higher mileage vehicles, hybrids are capturing an
increasing share of the market without any need for incentives.
Extending the sunset date of the program therefore simply
continues to reward motorists for purchase choices they made
several years ago while making more difficult the task of
reducing congestion in HOV lanes.
Natural gas and electric vehicles, by contrast, are rather small
in number, continue to struggle for market share, and place few
demands on the HOV lane system. Additionally, as supporters
point out, natural gas vehicles are primarily used in fleet
applications (taxis, shuttles, and public agencies). "Because
fleet owners need adequate time to make vehicle fleet
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replacement decisions, it is important that they be assured the
single occupancy HOV lane access will be continued beyond the
current (December 31) 2010 sunset." Signaling an extension of
the program well in advance of its scheduled sunset will help
assure continued purchases of natural gas vehicles.
Related legislation: SB 535 (Yee) would allow HOV lane
privileges for electric and natural gas vehicles as well as for
hybrids to sunset as scheduled in 2011 but would grant HOV lane
privileges for "plug-in" hybrids. That bill is scheduled to be
heard tomorrow in the Senate Transportation and Housing
Committee. AB 1502 (Eng) would extend until January 1, 2017,
the sunset date for natural gas and electric vehicle access to
HOV lanes. AB 1502 has not been scheduled for a hearing.
Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093
FN: 0004501