BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó






           SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE       BILL NO: AB 1811
          SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN              AUTHOR:  buchanan
                                                         VERSION: 4/8/14
          Analysis by:  Eric Thronson                    FISCAL:  no
          Hearing date:  June 17, 2014



          SUBJECT:

          Carpool access to high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes

          DESCRIPTION:

          This bill allows the Alameda County Transportation Commission to  
          restrict high-occupancy vehicle access to its high-occupancy  
          toll lanes contingent on the vehicle having an electronic  
          transponder.

          ANALYSIS:

          In 1970, the Legislature passed and the governor signed AB 1  
          (Biddle), Chapter 1295, which, among other things, authorized  
          the state to construct preferential freeway lanes for  
          high-occupancy vehicles (HOV lanes).  AB 1 specified that it was  
          the intent of the Legislature to encourage individual citizens  
          to pool their vehicular resources and thereby lessen emission of  
          air pollutants.  

          The theory behind carpool-only lanes is that, in heavily  
          congested areas, these lanes should be less congested than  
          all-purpose lanes and therefore faster, inducing people who  
          might otherwise not carpool to do so in order to avoid the  
          heaviest congestion.  Increasing the number of carpools, in  
          turn, should reduce the overall number of cars travelling in the  
          corridor (as drivers leave their cars at home in favor of  
          sharing a ride with someone).  In order to be effective, HOV  
          lanes must be less congested than other lanes, otherwise the  
          incentive is lost.  Highway lanes with lower congestion  
          typically are able to accommodate more vehicles and still  
          maintain their allure.  This additional capacity has value.

          AB 2032 (Dutra), Chapter 418, Statutes of 2004, authorized the  
          San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), the Sunol Smart  
          Carpool Lane Joint Powers Authority, the Santa Clara Valley  
          Transportation Authority (VTA), and the Alameda County  




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          Congestion Management Agency (now known as the Alameda County  
          Transportation Commission or ACTC) to construct HOV lanes and  
          convert them to HOT lanes.  HOT lanes are HOV lanes in which the  
          administering agency sells any extra capacity to toll-paying  
          single-occupant vehicles.  AB 2032 declared the Legislature's  
          intent that these HOT lanes increase efficiency of the  
          transportation system by taking advantage of existing capacity  
          without forfeiting the congestion mitigation and air quality  
          benefits provided by HOV lanes.

          HOT lanes typically employ a pricing method known as value  
          pricing or congestion pricing.  Under this scheme, the amount of  
          the toll varies in accordance with the level of congestion in  
          that particular lane, such that as congestion increases, so too  
          will the toll amount.  As the price to use the lane goes up,  
          fewer people presumably will choose to use it, thereby reducing  
          demand for the facility and maintaining free-flow travel  
          conditions.  With this mechanism, an agency can attempt to  
          ensure that operation of the toll facility does not undermine  
          the intended benefits of promoting carpooling with access to the  
          faster HOV lane.

          Existing law requires that high-occupancy vehicles have  
          unrestricted access to the HOT lanes authorized by AB 2032 at  
          all times.    

           This bill allows ACTC to restrict high-occupancy vehicle access  
          to its HOT lanes contingent on the vehicle having an electronic  
          transponder for law enforcement purposes.
          
          COMMENTS:

           1.Purpose  .  According to the author, this bill is necessary to  
            ensure that statute is flexible enough to accommodate rapidly  
            changing technology.  Current law does not allow ACTC to  
            restrict carpool access to the HOT lanes by requiring the use  
            of a transponder.  ACTC feels, however, that implementing a  
            policy requiring the use of transponders by both toll-paying  
            single-occupant vehicles and non-paying carpoolers will enable  
            it to enforce appropriate use of the lanes and improve overall  
            performance of its facilities.

           2.What would this restriction mean  ?  Currently, any vehicle with  
            two or more occupants can enter into the HOT lane in Alameda  
            County without paying a toll.  This bill may result in that no  
            longer being the case, as passage of the bill would enable  




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            ACTC to adopt a policy in which only vehicles with switchable  
            transponders will be able to access for free any HOT lanes in  
            the county.  A switchable transponder is like a Fastrak device  
            with a switch on it that allows the driver of the vehicle to  
            signal the number of occupants in the vehicle.  In this way, a  
            driver can switch from a toll-paying single-occupant driver to  
            a non-paying carpooler with a flip of the switch on his or her  
            transponder.  

            ACTC will not be the first public agency in California to  
            restrict carpool access by requiring a transponder.  The  
            express lane on SR 91, operated by Orange County  
            Transportation Authority, as well as the toll bridges in the  
            Bay Area, require carpoolers to use transponders to take  
            advantage of the free or reduced fares on their facilities.   
            The HOT lanes operated by Los Angeles County Metropolitan  
            Transportation Authority (LACMTA) on Interstates 10 and 110  
            require switchable transponders for carpools.  Existing law  
            authorizing these entities to operate toll facilities does not  
            require them to provide carpoolers unrestricted access,  
            enabling them to require transponders.

            According to LACMTA, their market research found that more  
            than 70 percent of existing carpoolers would continue to  
            carpool even with a transponder requirement, because they like  
            the idea of reducing the number of cheaters in the lanes.   
            LACMTA's finding also suggests that nearly 30 percent of  
            carpoolers responded that they would not continue to carpool  
            with the transponder requirement.  Research related to prior  
            bills involving the privacy aspects of transponders suggests  
            that there is a segment of society who prefer not to use  
            transponders for fear of the government or others tracking  
            their movement and location.  Others are distrustful of or  
            uncomfortable with technology in general and oppose using  
            electronic transponders for those reasons.  Finally, visitors  
            from out of town likely do not own transponders and therefore  
            would be restricted from using the HOT lanes.

            Regardless of the reason, adding this restriction for  
            carpoolers to accessing the HOT lanes will likely lead to a  
            reduction in high-occupant vehicles in the lane.  The only  
            carpoolers accessing the lane will be those who are  
            intentional carpoolers, drivers of vehicles who preemptively  
            obtained a new switchable transponder for the purpose of  
            accessing the HOT lane.  Incidental carpoolers, drivers who  
            might not want transponders for some reason, and carpoolers  




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            from out of town will be forced into the general-purpose  
            lanes.

           3.Why switchable transponders  ?  ACTC contends that switchable  
            transponders are needed for HOT lanes in order to improve  
            enforcement of non-paying single occupant vehicles accessing  
            the lane.  LACMTA reports that, by requiring switchable  
            transponders, their violation rate is 10 to 15 percent lower  
            than what other HOT lanes experience (from 20-25 percent  
            violation rate to 10-15 percent violation rate).   
            Administering agencies suggest that enforcement is important  
            because drivers who either pay the toll or appropriately  
            access the lane by carpooling get very frustrated and upset  
            when they see "cheaters" who access the lane illegally.  It is  
            hard to understand, however, how one driver may know that  
            another driver in a single-occupant vehicle did not pay the  
            toll for accessing the lane and is therefore cheating the  
            system.

            Another potential reason for requiring transponders and  
            improving enforcement is to reduce the number of vehicles  
            illegally accessing the lane and therefore creating increased  
            capacity and improved travel times for those appropriately  
            using the facility.  Reducing the number of violators also  
            increases the number of toll-paying vehicles that can access  
            the lane before the lane slows down so much that it no longer  
            provides an incentive for use.  Increasing the number of  
            toll-payers ultimately increases the amount of revenue the  
            administering agency can collect.  Finally, improved  
            enforcement can help reduce the amount of leakage in the HOT  
            lane's revenue stream.  Reducing the number of free riders by  
            10 percent could equate to essentially a 10 percent increase  
            in revenues.

           4.The potential danger of HOT lanes  .  Many transportation  
            experts suggest that HOT lanes represent good transportation  
            finance policy because they can accomplish two aims - namely,  
            encouraging carpooling and selling access capacity to generate  
            much-needed transportation revenue.  By accomplishing these  
            two goals, however, HOT lanes also create a tension between  
            competing interests.  At some point, operators have to choose  
            between the two objectives, because successfully filling the  
            lane with carpoolers will adversely affect revenue, and vice  
            versa.  The Legislature has clearly indicated in past  
            legislation that encouraging carpoolers is its priority.   
            Administering agencies operate these toll facilities and keep  




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            the revenue for their own use, potentially tempting them to  
            operate the lanes to maximize revenue instead of the number of  
            carpoolers.  ACTC and others adamantly object to the idea that  
            they would do so, but the temptation remains.

            Local agencies administer these toll facilities based on the  
            authority the Legislature grants them in enabling statute.  At  
            the time it passed AB 2032, giving ACTC the authority to  
            operate two HOT lanes, the Legislature required unrestricted  
            access for carpoolers to the lanes.  This bill allows ACTC to  
            institute a relatively minor restriction for carpoolers.   
            While there may be good reasons to enact this change, it is  
            important that the committee take note of the change in policy  
            and be aware of the precedent it sets.  Further changes to HOT  
            lane policies have the potential of eroding the facilities'  
            ability to encourage carpooling for the sake of increasing HOT  
            lane revenue generation.

           5.MTC supports, but seeks amendments  .  The Metropolitan  
            Transportation Commission (MTC), the Bay Area regional  
            transportation planning authority, supports the goal of this  
            bill to allow ACTC to require switchable transponders on its  
            HOT lane facilities.  MTC's letter also recommends that the  
            committee take a comprehensive approach to HOT lane  
            legislation so that MTC can fulfill the goal of developing a  
            regional HOT lane network.  MTC suggests that the committee  
            integrate changes in this bill with changes in AB 2090 (Fong),  
            also in this committee, in order to ensure that HOT lane rules  
            in the Bay Area can be consistent.  MTC's concern is that, if  
            the committee passes this bill and AB 2090 in their present  
            versions, it will be more difficult to implement MTC's  
            regional HOT lane network because they contain slightly  
            different language.  At this point it is unclear whether the  
            differences in the bills will cause a serious impediment for  
            MTC.

          RELATED LEGISLATION:
          
          AB 2090 (Fong) allows SANDAG and VTA to similarly restrict  
          carpool access to their HOT lanes contingent on the vehicle  
          having an electronic transponder.  In addition, AB 2090 deletes  
          state level-of-service requirements and replaces them with other  
          appropriate performance measures.  Also on today's agenda in the  
          Senate Transportation and Housing Committee.
          
          Assembly Votes:




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               Floor:    71-2
               Trans:    14-1

          POSITIONS:  (Communicated to the committee before noon on  
          Wednesday,                                             June 11,  
          2014.)

               SUPPORT:  Alameda County Transportation Commission  
          (sponsor)
                         California Special Districts Association
                         Metropolitan Transportation Commission 

               OPPOSED:  None received.