BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2013
Page 1
Date of Hearing: March 24, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
AB 2013 (Muratsuchi) - As Amended: March 17, 2014
SUBJECT : High-occupancy vehicle lanes: clean air vehicle
access
SUMMARY : Increases from 40,000 to 85,000 the number of advanced
technology partial zero-emission vehicles (enhanced AT PZEVs)
that may be allowed access to high-occupancy vehicle (HOV)
lanes, regardless of vehicle occupancy levels.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Prohibits the operation of single-occupant vehicles in HOV
lanes, with the exception of motorcycles and clean air
vehicles.
2)Directs the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue
stickers for clean air vehicles, until January 1, 2019, as
follows:
a) White clean air vehicle stickers are available for an
unlimited number of vehicles that meet California's super
ultra-low emission vehicle standard for exhaust emissions
and the federal inherently low-emission vehicle (ILEV)
evaporative emission standard. Vehicles that meet these
requirements are typically certified pure zero-emission
vehicles (100% battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell) and
compressed natural gas vehicles; and,
b) Green clean air vehicle stickers are available for
40,000 vehicles that meet California's enhanced AT PZEV
requirement or transitional zero-emission vehicles TZEV
standard. (Both vehicles types will be referred to
throughout the remainder of the analysis as AT PZEVs.)
1)Allows single-occupant clean air vehicles to operate in HOV
lanes until such time as the Department of Transportation
(Caltrans) determines that federal law does not authorize the
state to allow these vehicles to use HOV lanes. Requires
Caltrans to submit a notice of such a determination to the
Secretary of State, at which time HOV lane access privileges
AB 2013
Page 2
for single-occupant, clean air vehicles will be terminated.
2)Requires Caltrans to remove individual HOV lanes or HOV lane
segments during periods of peak congestion from clean air
vehicle access privileges if it finds that the lanes exceed a
level of service C (generally meaning at or near free-flowing
traffic with minimal delays) and that the operation or
projected operation of clean air vehicles in the HOV lanes
will significantly increase congestion.
3)Authorizes states, under the federal Moving Ahead for Progress
in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), until September 30, 2017, to
allow low-emission, energy-efficient vehicles to use HOV lanes
regardless of vehicle occupancy levels. States that provide
HOV access to clean air vehicles must do all the following:
a) Monitor the HOV system and report on the impact that
clean air vehicles have on operation of the system; and,
b) Limit or discontinue the use of the facility by clean
air vehicles if the presence of the vehicles degrades the
operation of the facility. The standard used for purposes
of determining whether a facility is degraded is if
vehicles operating on the facility are failing to maintain
a minimum average operating speed (generally 45 miles per
hour) 90% of the time over a consecutive 180 day period
during morning or evening weekday peak hour periods.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : An HOV lane, commonly referred to as a "carpool" or
"diamond" lane, is part of a traffic management strategy
designed to provide an incentive for commuters to form carpools
by offering reduced travel times. The declared legislative
intent in establishing these lanes is to relieve traffic
congestion, conserve fuel, and reduce vehicular emissions.
HOV lane access to single-occupant, clean air vehicles was first
authorized in 1999 with the passage of AB 71 (Cunneen, Chapter
330, Statutes of 1999) for super ultra-low emission vehicles and
ILEVs (white sticker vehicles). The intent of this original
authority (and subsequent authorities) was to incentivize the
purchase of clear air vehicles. Clean air vehicle programs
have, in fact, been shown to be quite successful in this vain.
For example, in a survey conducted last year by the California
AB 2013
Page 3
Center for Sustainable Energy, 59% of respondents indicated that
access to HOV lanes was an important motivation for purchasing a
clean air vehicle. That same survey also found that 74% of the
clean air vehicle owners reportedly display an HOV sticker on
their vehicles.
Expanding access to the green sticker program will ensure that
this important incentive is in place to encourage greater
saturation of AT PZEV vehicles. As of March 12, 2014, 36,230
green stickers have been issued and the 40,000 cap is expected
to be reached by the end of spring.
Despite the success of clean air vehicle programs there remain
concerns that allowing additional cars in the HOV lanes could
result in degraded performance of the lanes. The fear is that,
if HOV lanes become sufficiently degraded, their benefits (i.e.,
traffic congestion relief, fuel conservation, and reduced
emissions) will be lost and carpooling will be discouraged.
Consequently, both state and federal existing law require
Caltrans to monitor the performance of HOV lanes and to take
action to remedy the degradation if it occurs.
The latest HOV performance monitoring report issued by Caltrans
(based on 2011 data), indicates that in the first half of 2011,
43% of the HOV lanes were degraded. That number rose to 49% for
the second half of 2011. (This upward turn in HOV lane
degradation is particularly notable because this was the time
period immediately after an 85,000-yellow sticker clean air
vehicle program for hybrid vehicles expired and those hybrid
vehicles were no longer allowed in HOV lanes.) According to
Caltrans, data indicate that recurrent congestion and other
contributing factors are primary causes for HOV lane
degradation.
Consistent with federal law, Caltrans submitted to the Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA) an action plan to remedy the
degradation. That plan called for, among other strategies,
increased enforcement, improved incident management response
times, and improved detection. The action plan specifically
stated that Caltrans is not considering prohibiting clean air
vehicles from HOV lanes at this time because:
1)These vehicles constitute a very low percentage of the users
of HOV lanes; and,
AB 2013
Page 4
2)Prohibiting these vehicles runs counter to an existing
Governor's Executive Order that directs state agencies to take
action to support and incentivize the purchase and use of
these vehicles.
FHWA responded to Caltrans' proposed action plan in January this
year, indicating that the plan did not adequately provide
"proactive or tangible strategies to affect immediate mitigation
for bringing the facilities into compliance or at least leading
towards that goal." As a result, Caltrans will be considering
other options (reportedly not including removal of clean air
vehicles) to improve HOV lane performance, such as raising
vehicle occupancy levels.
While raising the existing cap from 40,000 to 85,000 will likely
not help the HOV lane degradation problem, past experience
indicates it is unlikely to make the situation significantly
worse.
Previous legislation : AB 71 (Cunneen) Chapter 330, Statutes of
1999, first authorized access to HOV lanes for vehicles in the
white sticker program.
That access was later expanded by AB 2628 (Pavley) Chapter 725,
Statutes of 2006, to allow hybrid vehicles. Since allowing
large numbers of hybrids into HOV lanes was feared to reduce the
effectiveness of the lanes by compromising their ability to
offer a quicker commute than adjacent mixed-flow lanes, AB 2628
limited the aggregate number of stickers for hybrids to 75,000
and allowed Caltrans to suspend HOV lane privileges for hybrids
on any particular lane that reaches a specified level of
congestion.
AB 2600 (Lieu) Chapter 614, Statutes of 2006, increased the
limit on hybrid stickers to 85,000 and extended AB 2628's 2008
sunset date to 2011. (DMV reached the 85,000 sticker cap for
hybrids in February 2007 and stopped issuing yellow stickers at
that point).
SB 535 (Yee) Chapter 215, Statutes of 2010, essentially replaced
the hybrid yellow sticker program with a new program aimed at
incentivizing the purchase of enhanced AT PEZ. The new program
(which uses green stickers) was capped at 40,000 vehicles and
was originally scheduled to sunset on January 1, 2015. Sunset
dates for both the green sticker and white sticker programs were
AB 2013
Page 5
subsequently extended to January 1, 2019, by SB 286 (Yee,
Chapter 414, Statutes of 2013) and AB 266 (Blumenfield, Chapter,
405, Statutes of 2013).
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (sponsor)
California Electric Transportation Coalition
California Manufacturers and Technology Association
Ford Motor Company
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Janet Dawson / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093