BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                            



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                                    THIRD READING


          Bill No:  AB 1721
          Author:   Linder (R), et al.
          Amended:  4/24/14 in Assembly
          Vote:     21

           
           SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE  :  10-0, 6/10/14
          AYES:  DeSaulnier, Gaines, Cannella, Galgiani, Hueso, Lara, Liu,  
            Pavley, Roth, Wyland
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Beall
           
          ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  72-2, 5/1/14 - See last page for vote


           SUBJECT  :    High-occupancy toll lanes:  low-emission vehicles

           SOURCE  :     Riverside County Transportation Commission


           DIGEST  :    This bill provides toll-free or reduced-rate passage  
          in high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes for certain single-occupant,  
          low-emission vehicles with a Clean Air Vehicle program sticker.

           ANALYSIS  :    A high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane, also known as  
          a carpool 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.

          Existing state law exempts certain clean, alternative-fuel  
          vehicles from HOV lane occupancy requirements, so that a vehicle  
          with just one occupant may use an HOV lane if it displays a  
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          Clean Air Vehicle sticker.  Currently, the Department of Motor  
          Vehicles (DMV) issues two types of stickers, white and green,  
          under the Clean Air Vehicle program.  Vehicles eligible for  
          white stickers are typically pure battery electric vehicles,  
          dedicated compressed natural gas or liquid petroleum gas  
          vehicles, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.  State law does not  
          limit white sticker issuance; as of May 5, 2014, DMV had issued  
          47,516 white stickers.  Vehicles eligible for green stickers are  
          generally plug-in hybrid vehicles.  State law caps the number of  
          green stickers at 40,000; DMV reached this number on May 9,  
          2014.  Both programs expire on January 1, 2019.

          A HOT lane, also known as an express lane, allows  
          single-occupant vehicles to access an HOV lane by paying a toll.  
           HOT lanes typically employ a method known as congestion  
          pricing.  Under congestion pricing, the amount of the toll  
          varies in accordance with traffic congestion levels, so that as  
          congestion in HOT lanes increases, the toll amount increases.   
          As the price to use the HOT lane goes up, fewer people choose to  
          use it, thereby reducing demand for the facility and maintaining  
          traffic flow.  Existing law authorizes local agencies to  
          establish HOT lanes in half a dozen counties across the state.    


          Existing state law exempts all vehicles with green or white  
          stickers from paying tolls in HOT lanes.

          Existing law authorizes the Metropolitan Transportation  
          Commission (MTC), serving as the Bay Area Toll Authority, to  
          grant toll-free or reduced-rate passage to carpools on toll  
          bridges.  If MTC does so, it must grant the same toll-free or  
          reduced-rate passage to a vehicle with a green or white sticker,  
          even if it is a single-occupant vehicle rather than a carpool.

          This bill provides that a toll agency may impose reduced-rate  
          tolls on vehicles with a green or white sticker accessing the  
          agency's HOT lanes.

           Background
           
           Exemptions for clean air vehicles from HOT lane tolls  .  SB 535  
          (Yee, Chapter 215, Statutes of 2010) which created the green  
          sticker program, specified that vehicles with green stickers  
          were not exempt from paying tolls for HOT lane pilot projects on  

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          Highways 10 and 110 in Los Angeles for an initial period.  At  
          the time, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Authority  
          expressed concern that granting access to these vehicles could  
          congest the lanes enough to jeopardize federal funding for the  
          projects.  Subsequent legislation, AB 2405 (Blumenfield, Chapter  
          674, Statutes of 2012) exempts vehicles with green or white  
          stickers from paying tolls in HOT lanes.  (Pursuant to SB 535,  
          the exemption did not apply to HOT lanes on Highway 110 until  
          after November 1, 2013 and to HOT lanes on Highway 10 until  
          after March 1, 2014.)  While supporters of AB 2405 cited free  
          HOT lane access as a key incentive to purchase low-emission  
          vehicles, opponents argued that exempting these vehicles from  
          tolls would undermine funding capacity for delivering  
          transportation infrastructure.  

          Although the state has not increased its gasoline excise tax -  
          the primary funding source for state roads - since 1994, public  
          support for a gas tax increase is thin.  Meanwhile, the  
          California Transportation Commission has documented billions of  
          dollars in maintenance and rehabilitation needs for the state's  
          transportation infrastructure.  As a result, local agencies are  
          seeking alternatives - including HOT lanes - to fund  
          transportation maintenance, rehabilitation, and expansion.  The  
          current federal transportation funding act provides increased  
          flexibility to local authorities to convert HOV lanes to HOT  
          lanes, making HOT lanes an even more attractive option.  

           Carrots vs. sticks  .  Supporters of the Clean Air Vehicle program  
          cite green and white stickers as a critical incentive to  
          persuade consumers to purchase low-emission vehicles.  Exempting  
          vehicles with green and white stickers from tolls in HOT lanes,  
          however, erodes the revenue-raising capacity of these  
          facilities.  In addition, it erodes the ability of HOT lane  
          operators to control traffic flow in these lanes.  Because  
          vehicles with green and white stickers do not have to pay a  
          toll, these drivers are not discouraged from using the HOT lane  
          when congestion increases and the toll go up.  Between March  
          2013 and May 2014, DMV issued more than 87,000 green and white  
          stickers.  Exempting these vehicles from tolls, while providing  
          an incentive to purchase low-emission vehicles, constitutes a  
          significant revenue loss for HOT lane operators.  This bill  
          provides a compromise by allowing local authorities to charge a  
          reduced-rate toll to vehicles with a green or white sticker.


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           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  No   Fiscal Com.:  No   Local:  
           No

           SUPPORT  :   (Verified  6/12/14)

          Riverside County Transportation Commission (source)
          Southern California Association of Governments

           ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT  :    The author's office states that the  
          sponsor of this bill, Riverside County Transportation Commission  
          (RCTC), has invested $351 million in the Interstate 15 Corridor  
          Improvement Project (I-15 CIP).  I-15 CIP will be funded by  
          voter-approved Measure A sales taxes and toll revenues, but no  
          state funds.  The author's office asserts that although local  
          agencies incur millions of dollars in debt to build HOT lanes,  
          the state interferes with local tolling policy and reduces  
          revenue available to meet repayment requirements by exempting  
          clean air vehicles from tolls in HOT lanes.  The author's office  
          states that this bill protects RCTC's investment by allowing HOT  
          lane operators to charge clean air vehicles a reduced toll.  


           ASSEMBLY FLOOR :  72-2, 5/1/14
          AYES:  Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,  
            Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Buchanan, Ian Calderon,  
            Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Dababneh,  
            Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier,  
            Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray,  
            Grove, Hagman, Harkey, Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine,  
            Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Medina, Melendez,  
            Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson,  
            Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon,  
            Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner,  
            Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A.  
            Pérez
          NOES:  Gatto, Roger Hernández
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Ammiano, Brown, Hall, Mansoor, Salas, Vacancy


          JA:k  6/13/14   Senate Floor Analyses 

                           SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

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