BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1721| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 CONTINUED AB 1721 Page 2 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 CONTINUED AB 1721 Page 3 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. CONTINUED AB 1721 Page 4 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 **** END **** CONTINUED AB 1721 Page 5 CONTINUED