BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 2405
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: blumenfield
VERSION: 6/4/12
Analysis by: Eric Thronson FISCAL: no
Hearing date: June 12, 2012
SUBJECT:
Low-emission vehicles in high-occupancy toll lanes
DESCRIPTION:
This bill exempts low-emission vehicles with valid stickers from
toll charges imposed on single-occupant vehicles in
high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes.
ANALYSIS:
In 1999, the Legislature passed and the governor signed AB 71
(Cunneen), Chapter 330, to grant certain low-emission vehicles
access to high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, regardless of
vehicle occupancy. These vehicles include all-electric vehicles
such as the Tesla Roadster or the RAV 4 EV and natural gas
vehicles such as the Honda Civic CNG. To differentiate these
vehicles, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) issues white
stickers to be affixed on the vehicle. There is no limit on the
number of these vehicles that may be issued white stickers. As
of May of this year, DMV has issued nearly 19,000 sets of white
stickers.
In 2004, AB 2628 (Pavley), Chapter 725, allowed certain
high-mileage hybrid vehicles to access HOV lanes regardless of
occupancy. The DMV issued yellow stickers to owners of these
vehicles. The Legislature ultimately capped the number of
vehicles that may be issued yellow stickers at 85,000, a limit
reached in 2007.
SB 535 (Yee), Chapter 215, Statutes of 2010, grants access to
HOV lanes to a new class of vehicles, including "plug-in"
hybrids such as the Toyota Prius Plug-in and the Chevy Volt,
beginning January 1, 2012. SB 535 capped the number of green
stickers the DMV may issue to vehicle owners at 40,000.
While the authority to access HOV lanes expired for vehicles
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with yellow stickers on June 30, 2011, vehicles with white and
green stickers maintain access to HOV lanes until January 1,
2015.
SB 535 also specified that low-emission vehicles with valid
stickers are not exempt from paying tolls on HOT lanes on State
Highways 10 and 110 in Los Angeles. At the time, Los Angeles
County Metropolitan Transportation Authority expressed concern
that granting access to drivers of these vehicles could congest
the lanes enough to jeopardize federal funding for the projects.
This bill exempts vehicles with green and white stickers from
toll charges that single-occupant vehicles pay to access HOT
lanes. This exemption does not apply to HOT lanes on State
Highway 110 in Los Angeles until after November 1, 2013, nor
does the exemption apply to HOT lanes on State Highway 10 in Los
Angeles until after March 1, 2014.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . According to the author, allowing certain
single-occupant vehicles to use HOV lanes has been an
important tool for promoting the purchase of low-emitting
cars, such as electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. To meet
current and future traffic demands, many HOV lanes across the
state are being converted to HOT lanes. The author contends
that it is important for incentives provided to low-emission
cars today to carry over as HOV lanes are converted to HOT
lanes. This bill gives current and future clean car owners
certainty about high-occupancy lane access and will continue
to provide a valuable incentive for purchasing clean air
vehicles.
2.The role of HOV and HOT lanes . In allowing for the
development of HOV lanes, the Legislature hoped to accomplish
two objectives. First, these lanes were to incentivize
drivers to participate in carpools or otherwise share rides
with drivers travelling to similar destinations. Then,
because fewer single-occupancy vehicles would be on the
highway, HOV lanes were expected to reduce congestion for
those who did not carpool.
HOV lanes in California have been more or less successful in
accomplishing these two objectives. When carpool lanes are
not used to full capacity by high-occupancy vehicles, there is
room for additional vehicles to travel and not overly diminish
the throughput of the lanes. In these cases, many options are
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available to the managing transportation entities. For
example, as previously mentioned, the state has opened these
lanes to low-emission vehicles attempting to provide
incentives for the purchase of these vehicles to consumers who
might otherwise not buy them. Alternatively, some agencies
have chosen to sell HOV capacity to single-occupant vehicles
through the use of tolls, which provides a number of benefits.
Besides raising much-needed transportation revenues for
things such as road maintenance, increased capacity, or other
mobility solutions, HOT lanes can also contribute to reducing
congestion as they reduce the number of vehicles in non-toll
lanes.
It is important that throughput remains significantly higher
in high-occupancy lanes than others along the same portion of
highway or the value of these lanes is diminished. Therefore,
these lanes must be monitored and managed effectively. If an
HOV lane begins exhibiting too much congestion, agencies can
increase the threshold to gain access by requiring more people
per car to qualify for their use. Similarly, if HOT lanes
become oversubscribed, raising tolls can help reduce demand
and keep the lanes moving adequately.
3.Does HOV access really incentivize clean car purchases ? The
primary argument for granting low- or zero-emission vehicles
access to HOV and HOT lanes is that this provides a
non-monetary incentive for purchasing these vehicles,
increasing the adoption of new technologies through
encouraging consumers to buy the vehicles when they might not
otherwise. Studies do not overwhelmingly conclude that HOV
access does in fact incentivize this behavior, however. Some
argue that the people who purchased hybrids in California
would have done so whether or not the vehicles gave them
access to HOV lanes, and others point out that even monetary
incentives make little impact in the adoption of clean
vehicles.
4.Social equity concerns . For a variety of reasons,
low-emission vehicles often have higher purchase prices than
comparable gasoline-powered vehicles. These higher purchase
prices generally make low-emission vehicles that qualify for
HOV lane access unaffordable for lower-income drivers. This
bill provides access to HOT lanes for drivers of these
higher-priced vehicles, essentially providing for free what
other drivers of single-occupant vehicles will be required to
pay for. This policy also reduces the available capacity in
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these HOT lanes, meaning that administering agencies may need
to set higher toll prices than they would otherwise in order
to manage the number of cars accessing these lanes. Some have
raised concerns that ultimately this bill will result in a
scenario where higher-income individuals are granted free
access to preferred lanes, while lower-income drivers pay
higher tolls than they would otherwise need to for access to
the same lanes.
5.Arguments in support . Many organizations have expressed
support for this bill because of its potential to incentivize
the purchase of lower-emission vehicles. In other letters of
support, representatives of taxi cab companies contend that
many cab drivers use clean-burning natural gas vehicles
because they appreciate the HOV lane access available to them
after dropping off customers. They suggest that if drivers
were to lose that access due to the transformation of HOV
lanes to HOT lanes, drivers may instead opt to purchase or
lease gasoline-powered vehicles, thus increasing their
contributions to poor air quality.
6.Arguments in opposition . The American Council of Engineering
Companies of California (ACEC) wrote a letter in opposition to
this bill, principally objecting on the grounds that it could
undermine funding capacity for delivering transportation
infrastructure. Alternative fuel vehicles using limited or no
gasoline contribute very little toward funding infrastructure
and road maintenance because the primary state funding
mechanism for these expenditures is the gasoline excise tax.
ACEC suggests that tolls are one way to capture some funds
from drivers of these vehicles who benefit from public
infrastructure but do not contribute to its upkeep or
expansion. Further, ACEC points out that while the pool of
vehicles that would benefit from this bill is currently
relatively small, state mandates are expected to greatly
increase the number of low/zero emissions vehicles over the
next decade. This expansion could exacerbate the funding
problem, with more cars using the road system and fewer
drivers contributing to funding the repair and maintenance of
the roads.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 49 - 25
Trans: 9 - 3
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
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Wednesday,
June 6, 2012)
SUPPORT: Silicon Valley Clean Cities Coalition
Antelope Valley Clean Cities Coalition
California Electric Transportation Coalition
California Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition
CALSTART
Coalition for Clean Air
Clean Energy
CODA Holdings
City Cab - Los Angeles Division
California Yellow Cab
Yellow Cab of Greater Orange County
Honda
OPPOSED: American Council of Engineering Companies of
California