BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 286
Author: Yee (D) and Pavley (D), et al.
Amended: 8/22/13
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 11-0, 4/2/13
AYES: DeSaulnier, Gaines, Beall, Cannella, Galgiani, Hueso,
Lara, Liu, Pavley, Roth, Wyland
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SENATE FLOOR : 34-0, 4/25/13
AYES: Anderson, Beall, Berryhill, Block, Calderon, Cannella,
Corbett, Correa, DeSaulnier, Emmerson, Evans, Fuller, Gaines,
Galgiani, Hancock, Hernandez, Hill, Huff, Jackson, Knight,
Lara, Leno, Lieu, Liu, Monning, Nielsen, Pavley, Price, Roth,
Steinberg, Walters, Wright, Wyland, Yee
NO VOTE RECORDED: De León, Hueso, Padilla, Wolk, Vacancy,
Vacancy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 69-5, 9/3/13 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Vehicles: high-occupancy vehicle lanes
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill extends, from January 1, 2015, to January
1, 2019, the sunset date on provisions of existing law that
allows certain clean air vehicle to use high-occupancy vehicle
(HOV) lanes with a single occupant, deletes obsolete and
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redundant provisions, and is double-jointed to, and contingent
upon successful enactment of, AB 266 (Blumenfield and Bloom).
Assembly Amendments remove the extension for white HOV sticker
vehicles, delete obsolete and redundant provisions for existing
law, and add double-jointing and contingency language with AB
266.
ANALYSIS : A HOV lane, also known as a carpool lane or diamond
lane, aims to promote and encourage ridesharing. Depending on
the particular HOV lane, a vehicle must have a minimum of either
two or three occupants in order to access the lane during
operational hours. Existing law exempts certain clean,
alternative-fuel vehicles from these occupancy requirements, so
that a vehicle with just one occupant may use an HOV lane if it
displays a Clean Air Vehicle sticker. The state has implemented
three clean air vehicle HOV sticker programs in recent years:
White HOV stickers . AB 71 (Cunneen), Chapter 330, Statutes of
1999, established the "white sticker program," which allows
vehicles that meet certain strict emission standards to drive
in carpool lanes with a single occupant. These vehicles are
typically pure battery electric vehicles, dedicated compressed
natural gas or liquid petroleum gas vehicles, and hydrogen
fuel cell vehicles, such as the Nissan Leaf, the Tesla
Roadster, and the Honda Civic CNG. State law places no limit
on the number of stickers that can be issued; as of March 1,
2013, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) had issued 23,223
white stickers. This program expires on January 1, 2015.
Yellow HOV stickers (expired) . AB 2628 (Pavley), Chapter 725,
Statutes of 2004, established the "yellow sticker program,"
which granted HOV lane access to certain single-occupant,
hybrid or alternatively fueled vehicles. Federal law allows
single-occupant vehicles in HOV lanes only if they have been
federally certified as low-emission vehicles; at that time, no
hybrid vehicles met federal emissions requirements. To
address this prohibition, AB 2628 conditioned its
implementation on the state receiving a federal waiver. In
April 2006, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) granted
conditional approval, enabling the yellow sticker program to
go into effect. Under this program, DMV issued yellow
stickers for the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid. The
number of vehicles that might be issued these stickers was
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ultimately capped at 85,000, a limit that was reached in 2007;
all yellow stickers expired on July 1, 2011.
Green HOV stickers . SB 535 (Yee), Chapter 215, Statutes of
2010, established the "green sticker program," which allows
certain single-occupant vehicles - generally, plug-in hybrid
vehicles that meet the Air Resources Board's strictest
emission standard - to drive in carpool lanes. The only
vehicles eligible to date for green stickers are the Chevrolet
Volt, Ford C-Max Energi, Ford Fusion Energi, Toyota Prius
Plug-In, and Honda Accord Plug-In Hybrid. State law limits
the number of green stickers that DMV may issue to 40,000.
This program began on January 1, 2012; as of March 1, 2013,
DMV had issued 10,881 green stickers. These stickers are
valid until January 1, 2015.
This bill:
1. Extends the sunset date on provisions of existing law that
allows green HOV sticker vehicles to use HOV lanes with a
single occupant from January 1, 2015, to January 1, 2019, or
until federal authorization expires or until the Secretary of
State receives that specified notice, whichever occurs first.
2. Deletes obsolete and redundant provisions of existing law.
3. Is double-jointed to and contingent upon successful enactment
of AB 266.
Comments :
HOV access incentivize clean car purchases . The primary
argument for granting low- or zero-emission vehicles access to
HOV or HOT lanes is that it provides a non-monetary incentive to
purchase these vehicles, thereby increasing the adoption of new
technologies. Studies do not overwhelmingly conclude that HOV
access does in fact incentivize this behavior. An April 2011
paper by Sharon Shewmake of Vanderbilt University Law School and
Lovell Jarvis of the University of California, Davis found that
HOV lane access was so important to some drivers that "many
hybrid owners were willing to pay upwards of $3,200 per sticker"
- suggesting that the stickers are indeed an effective incentive
to get people to buy clean cars. The study also noted, however,
that "Despite having a high value, the stickers were less
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effective at stimulating the demand for hybrid electric vehicles
than an equivalent cash subsidy."
Single-occupant clean vehicles carpool lanes . In April 2006,
FHWA granted conditional approval to allow hybrid vehicles in
HOV lanes, enabling the yellow sticker program to go into
effect. FHWA required the Department of Transportation
(Caltrans) to monitor and report on the performance of HOV lanes
and to take steps to address congestion if necessary.
In July 2006, after the state had issued 50,000 yellow stickers
to eligible vehicles, Caltrans found that approximately 46% of
HOV lane segments operated under degraded conditions. While
Caltrans could not attribute the increased congestion solely to
single-occupant hybrid vehicles accessing the lanes, FHWA
asserted that these vehicles did not have to be the cause of
degradation in order for Caltrans to take action to reduce HOV
lane congestion. Accordingly, FHWA requested that Caltrans
develop a plan to improve the performance of HOV lanes.
Caltrans submitted this report to FHWA in August 2007. The plan
outlined short- and long-term measures to improve HOV lane
performance, including increased enforcement, improved system
management, infrastructure improvements, public education, and,
if necessary, a prohibition of single-occupant hybrid vehicles
from accessing the most congested segments of the HOV lane
network.
Caltrans' most recent HOV lane degradation report, submitted to
FHWA in November 2011, concluded that HOV lane degradation "may
continue to be the result of high traffic demand and congestion
across the entire freeway facility rather than attributed to the
single occupancy ILEV/hybrids alone."
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified per Assembly Transportation Committee
analysis of 6/17/13) (Unable to reverify)
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers
American Lung Association
AutoNation Honda of Fremont
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BAF Technologies
California Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition
California Electric Transportation Coalition
CALSTART
Clean Energy
Diamond Honda
EMCOR Services Mesa Energy Systems
Ford Motor Company
Freeway Honda
G&S Transit Management, Inc.
Galpin Honda
General Motor
Honda of Hollywood
Honda of Thousand Oaks
Honda North America, Inc.
LA City Cab LLC DBA City Cab
Nissan North America
Pacific Honda
Plug In America
Sierra Honda
Southern California Gas Company
San Diego Gas & Electric
Tesla Motors
Tri City Transportation Systems, Inc. DBA Yellow Cab and DBA
Checker Cab
Unicars Honda
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
continuing access to these alternative fuel vehicles has proven
to be the strongest non-monetary incentive California offers to
consumers to purchase the next generation of more
technologically advanced vehicles. By extending the life of the
available stickers, this bill will provide a much greater
incentive for individuals to purchase these clean cars.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 69-5, 9/3/13
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley,
Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Beth
Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray,
Harkey, Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder,
Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Medina, Melendez, Mitchell,
Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson,
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Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas,
Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk,
Williams, John A. Pérez
NOES: Donnelly, Grove, Hagman, Morrell, Waldron
NO VOTE RECORDED: Hall, Jones, Mansoor, Yamada, Vacancy,
Vacancy
JJA:d:n 9/3/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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