BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 2090 SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: fong VERSION: 6/5/14 Analysis by: Eric Thronson FISCAL: yes Hearing date: June 17, 2014 SUBJECT: High-occupancy toll lanes DESCRIPTION: This bill allows local agencies to restrict high-occupancy vehicle access to its high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes contingent on the vehicle having an electronic transponder, and replaces level-of-service (LOS) requirements for those lanes with new performance measures. 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 AB 2090 (FONG) Page 2 Transportation Authority (VTA), and the Alameda County 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. Existing law also requires that SANDAG, VTA, and ACTC operate their HOT lanes such that they maintain a particular LOS as determined by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). This bill : Allows SANDAG and VTA to restrict high-occupancy vehicle access to its HOT lanes contingent on the vehicle having an electronic transponder for law enforcement purposes. Deletes LOS requirements on HOT lanes operated by SANDAG and VTA and requires these agencies instead to develop appropriate alternative performance measures with Caltrans' consent. COMMENTS: 1.Purpose . According to the author, this bill is important because it allows SANDAG and VTA to automate enforcement of toll evaders in their HOT lanes to a much larger degree. This bill also enables these agencies to take a AB 2090 (FONG) Page 3 corridor-by-corridor approach in determining appropriate LOS standards to maximize the effectiveness of their HOT lanes and better manage traffic flow. 2.What would the carpool restriction mean ? Currently, any vehicle with two or more occupants can enter into the HOT lanes operated by SANDAG and VTA without paying a toll. This bill may result in that no longer being the case, as passage of the bill would enable SANDAG and VTA to adopt a policy in which only vehicles with switchable transponders would be able to access for free their HOT lanes. 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. SANDAG and VTA will not be the first public agencies 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. AB 2090 (FONG) Page 4 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 from out of town will be forced into the general-purpose lanes. 3.Why switchable transponders ? SANDAG and VTA contend 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 AB 2090 (FONG) Page 5 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 the revenue for their own use, potentially tempting them to operate the lanes to maximize revenue instead of the number of carpoolers. SANDAG, VTA, 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 SANDAG and VTA the authority to operate HOT lanes, the Legislature required unrestricted access for carpoolers to the lanes. This bill allows these agencies 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.Changing LOS requirements . As mentioned previously, this bill also changes the LOS requirements for the HOT lanes operated by SANDAG and VTA. LOS is a commonly used, nationally recognized measure of the "density" of vehicles traveling in a given highway lane. LOS standards incorporate several measurement components, including maneuverability, driver comfort, effect of minor incidents, average travel speed, and spacing between vehicles. Unfortunately, in the case of HOT lanes, LOS may not be the best method to manage traffic flow. The complicated LOS standard can lead to unintended consequences, like closing the lane to toll-payers because of a minor incident even though traffic in the lane is otherwise free-flowing. Further, federal law more efficiently protects the flow of traffic in HOT lanes by essentially creating a speed floor. Federal law requires HOT lane operators to constantly monitor their systems and discontinue toll-paying single-occupant vehicle access when traffic flow has degraded to an average operating speed of 45 miles an hour. The federal government AB 2090 (FONG) Page 6 has determined that this requirement ensures that the HOT lanes remain free-flowing enough to induce carpooling. With this in place, and as long as Caltrans is involved in and agrees to any further LOS requirements, it seems reasonable to allow local agencies to determine the best way to manage their HOT lanes, as they ultimately deal with the consequences of the lanes' performance. 6.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 VTA 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 1811 (Buchanan), 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 1811 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 1811 (Buchanan) allows ACTC to similarly restrict carpool access to their HOT lanes contingent on the vehicle having an electronic transponder. Also on today's agenda in the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee. Assembly Votes: Floor: 71-2 Appr: 17-0 Trans: 14-1 POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on Wednesday, June 11, 2014.) SUPPORT: Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (sponsor) Metropolitan Transportation Commission San Diego Association of Governments AB 2090 (FONG) Page 7 San Mateo County Transportation Authority OPPOSED: None received.