BILL ANALYSIS �
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 266
Author: Blumenfield (D) and Bloom (D)
Amended: 8/19/13 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 11-0, 7/2/13
AYES: DeSaulnier, Gaines, Beall, Cannella, Galgiani, Hueso,
Lara, Liu, Pavley, Roth, Wyland
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 49-22, 5/20/13 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : High-occupancy lanes: low-emission vehicles
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill extends, from January 1, 2015, to January
1, 2019, the sunset date on provisions of existing law that
allows certain clean air vehicle to use high-occupancy vehicle
(HOV) lanes with a single occupant, deletes obsolete and
redundant provisions, and is double-jointed to, and contingent
upon successful enactment of, SB 286 (Yee).
ANALYSIS : An HOV lane, also known as a carpool lane or
diamond lane, aims to promote and encourage ridesharing, thereby
alleviating traffic congestion and improving air quality.
Depending on the particular HOV lane, a vehicle must have a
minimum of either two or three occupants in order to access the
lane during operational hours. Existing law exempts certain
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clean, alternative-fuel vehicles from these occupancy
requirements, so that a vehicle with just one occupant may use
an HOV lane if it displays a Clean Air Vehicle sticker. The
state has two clean air vehicle HOV sticker programs:
White HOV stickers . AB 71 (Cunneen, Chapter 330, Statutes of
1999) established the "white sticker program," which allows
vehicles that meet certain strict emission standards to drive in
carpool lanes with a single occupant. These vehicles are
typically pure battery electric vehicles, dedicated compressed
natural gas or liquid petroleum gas vehicles, and hydrogen fuel
cell vehicles, such as the Nissan Leaf, the Tesla Roadster, and
the Honda Civic CNG. State law places no limit on the number of
stickers that can be issued. As of May 31, 2013, the Department
of Motor Vehicles (DMV) had issued 27,780 white stickers. This
program expires on January 1, 2015.
Green HOV stickers . SB 535 (Yee, Chapter 215, Statutes of 2010)
established the "green sticker program," which allows certain
single-occupant vehicles, generally, plug-in hybrid vehicles
that meet the Air Resources Board's (ARB) strictest emission
standard, to drive in carpool lanes. The only vehicles eligible
to date for green stickers are the Chevrolet Volt, Ford C-Max
Energi, Ford Fusion Energi, Toyota Prius Plug-In, and Honda
Accord Plug-In Hybrid. State law limits the number of green
stickers that DMV may issue to 40,000. This program began on
January 1, 2012. As of May 31, 2013, DMV had issued 14,525
green stickers. These stickers are valid until January 1, 2015.
Existing law 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, and 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 will be terminated.
This bill:
1. Extends the sunset date on provisions of existing law that
allows white HOV sticker vehicles to use HOV lanes with a
single occupant from January 1, 2015, to January 1, 2019, or
until federal authorization expires or until the Secretary of
State receives that specified notice, whichever occurs first.
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2. Deletes obsolete and redundant provisions of existing law.
3. Is double-jointed to, and contingent upon successful
enactment of, SB 286 (Yee).
Comments
Does HOV access incentivize clean car purchases ? The primary
argument for granting low- or zero-emission vehicles access to
HOV or high-occupancy toll lanes is that it provides a
non-monetary incentive to purchase these vehicles, thereby
increasing the adoption of new technologies. Studies do not
overwhelmingly conclude that HOV access does in fact incentivize
this behavior. An April 2011 paper by Sharon Shewmake of
Vanderbilt University Law School and Lovell Jarvis of University
of California, Davis found that HOV lane access was so important
to some drivers that "many hybrid owners were willing to pay
upwards of $3,200 per sticker" - suggesting that the stickers
are indeed an effective incentive to get people to buy clean
cars. The study also noted, however, that "despite having a
high value, the stickers were less effective at stimulating the
demand for hybrid electric vehicles than an equivalent cash
subsidy."
Do single-occupant clean vehicles clog carpool lanes ? In April
2006, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) granted
conditional approval to allow hybrid vehicles in HOV lanes,
enabling the yellow sticker program, which expired July 1, 2011,
to go into effect. FHWA required the Department of
Transportation (Caltrans) to monitor and report on the
performance of HOV lanes and to take steps to address congestion
if necessary.
In July 2006, after the state had issued 50,000 yellow stickers
to eligible vehicles, Caltrans found that approximately 46% of
HOV lane segments operated under degraded conditions. While
Caltrans could not attribute the increased congestion solely to
single-occupant hybrid vehicles accessing the lanes, FHWA
asserted that these vehicles did not have to be the cause of
degradation in order for Caltrans to take action to reduce HOV
lane congestion. Accordingly, FHWA requested that Caltrans
develop a plan to improve the performance of HOV lanes.
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Caltrans submitted this report to FHWA in August 2007 . The plan
outlined short- and long-term measures to improve HOV lane
performance, including increased enforcement, improved system
management, infrastructure improvements, public education, and,
if necessary, a prohibition of single-occupant hybrid vehicles
from accessing the most congested segments of the HOV lane
network.
Caltrans' most recent HOV lane degradation report, submitted to
FHWA in November 2011, concluded that HOV lane degradation may
continue to be the result of high traffic demand and congestion
across the entire freeway facility rather than attributed to the
single occupancy hybrids alone.
While California's HOV lanes are indeed congested, this
congestion is not attributable solely to single-occupant clean
vehicles. Moreover, if Caltrans is able to attribute
unacceptable congestion levels to these cars, it has statutory
authority to ban them from HOV lanes and thereby override this
bill.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/20/13)
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers
California Electric Transportation Coalition
CALSTART
General Motors
Honda North America, Inc.
Plug In America
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office, under
the ARB's Advanced Clean Car Rules, California aims to have
zero-emission or plug-in hybrid cars account for 15% of new
vehicles sold each year by 2025. The author's office notes that
the Clean Air Vehicle Sticker Program is an important incentive
for clean car purchases and that just as more manufacturers are
entering the market with more clean and/or zero-emission cars,
the program is set to expire. The author's office further
states that by providing long-term incentives to consumers for
making green vehicle choices, this bill helps to leverage
California's position as the clean technology capital of the
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world, create good jobs, and meet state emissions reduction
goals.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 49-22, 5/20/13
AYES: Alejo, Ammiano, Atkins, Bloom, Blumenfield, Bocanegra,
Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon,
Campos, Chau, Chesbro, Cooley, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong,
Frazier, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gordon, Hall, Roger Hern�ndez,
Levine, Linder, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Medina, Mitchell,
Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Pan, Perea, Quirk,
Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Weber, Wieckowski,
Williams, John A. P�rez
NOES: Achadjian, Allen, Bigelow, Ch�vez, Conway, Dahle,
Donnelly, Beth Gaines, Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Harkey,
Jones, Mansoor, Morrell, Olsen, Patterson, V. Manuel P�rez,
Wagner, Waldron, Wilk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Fox, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Logue, Melendez,
Salas, Yamada, Vacancy, Vacancy
JJA:d 8/21/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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