BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: SB 1298
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: Hernandez
VERSION: 2/21/14
Analysis by: Eric Thronson FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: April 29, 2014
SUBJECT:
High-occupancy toll lanes
DESCRIPTION:
This bill makes changes to the state's high-occupancy toll (HOT)
lane program, and eliminates the sunset date on the HOT lane
demonstration project in Los Angeles County.
ANALYSIS:
Until 2012, existing law authorized regional transportation
agencies, in cooperation with the California Department of
Transportation (Caltrans), to apply to the California
Transportation Commission (CTC) to develop and operate HOT
lanes. An agency operating a HOT lane essentially sells excess
capacity in under-subscribed high-occupancy vehicle lanes to
single-occupant vehicle drivers by charging a toll. This
authority limited CTC to deeming up to four HOT lane projects
eligible for construction, two in Northern California and two in
Southern California. CTC was also required to hold public
hearings on any eligible project. The original legislation
required the Legislature to ultimately approve any HOT lane
projects deemed eligible by the CTC; subsequent legislation
eliminated the Legislative approval requirement, but failed to
identify the replacement entity ultimately responsible for
approving the project.
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 ensure that
operation of the toll facility does not undermine the intended
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benefits of promoting carpooling with access to the faster
high-occupancy vehicle lane.
In 2008, following an eligibility review by the CTC, the
Legislature passed and the governor signed SB 1422
(Ridley-Thomas), Chapter 547, which allowed the Los Angeles
County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), in
cooperation with Caltrans, to operate a value-pricing and
transit development demonstration program. Under this program,
which LACMTA refers to as "ExpressLanes," LACMTA converted the
high-occupancy vehicle lanes on portions of I-10 and I-110 in
Los Angeles County to HOT lanes.
SB 1422 established the conditions under which LACMTA could
implement the program, including the following:
LACMTA could implement the program with Caltrans, and needed
Caltrans' consent to establish appropriate performance
measures for ensuring optimal use of the HOT lanes.
LACMTA could not change the minimum vehicle occupancy standard
for free access to the HOT lane during the demonstration
period.
Each proposed HOT lane must have non-tolled alternatives
available for public use in the same corridor.
LACMTA could use toll revenues generated from the program for
the direct expenses related to the maintenance,
administration, and operation, including collection and
enforcement, of the demonstration program. It could spend no
more than three percent of toll revenues on administration
expenses.
LACMTA must adopt an expenditure plan in which all revenues in
excess of those necessary for the implementation of the
SB 1298 (HERNANDEZ) Page 3
program are spent in the corridor from which the revenue was
generated exclusively for preconstruction, construction, and
related costs of HOV facilities and the improvement of transit
service in the corridor.
In addition, SB 1422 required LACMTA to conduct a public
outreach plan to solicit input in the development of the
demonstration program, and to identify the affected communities
and work with those communities to identify impacts and develop
measures to mitigate those impacts.
Under existing law, LACMTA and Caltrans shall, by December 31,
2014, provide a report to the Legislature on, among other
things, the impact of the program on carpoolers and affected
communities, as well as how the program impacted transit service
or alternative modes of transportation. The authority for
LACMTA to operate this HOT lane demonstration program expires
January 15, 2015.
This bill does two things:
1.In relation to the expired authority for regional
transportation agencies to apply to CTC for review of HOT lane
proposals, this bill eliminates the 2012 sunset date and the
limit of up to four total facilities in the state. In this
way, the bill enables CTC to review and deem eligible any
number of HOT lane facilities in the state without
restriction. This bill also eliminates the requirement that
the CTC conduct public hearings on each eligible proposal.
2.This bill authorizes LACMTA to continue operating the
ExpressLanes HOT lane program on I-10 and I-110 indefinitely,
with the following changes to the program:
LACMTA no longer needs the consent of Caltrans to
establish appropriate performance measures for ensuring
optimal use of the HOT lanes.
LACMTA may now change the minimum vehicle occupancy
standard for free access to the HOT lane.
LACMTA is no longer required to provide a report to the
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Legislature on the impacts of the program.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . According to the author, the LACMTA ExpressLanes
demonstration project is considered a success by stakeholder
groups, cities, and local officials. This bill is necessary
to make the project permanent.
2.Funding and prioritizing transportation . Some suggest the way
California deals with funding transportation seems out of sync
with logic. Generally speaking, there are traditional means
for raising transportation revenues (such as the excise tax on
fuels and weight fees for commercial vehicles), and there are
various alternative methods for funding transportation.
Historically, the state collected the traditional
transportation revenues and redistributed the funds in various
ways with some priority for projects that meet statewide
goals. More recently, the state has relinquished much control
of these traditional revenues and now allows regions to make
most of the spending decisions with these funds based on
regional needs and priorities.
With alternative methods of raising transportation revenues,
such as local sales taxes or tolls, the state has generally
authorized each method individually, with varying
restrictions, but allowed local or regional agencies to
collect the revenues and administer the program. By doing so,
the state complicates the process and creates challenges for
local and regional entities to empower themselves and address
their unique transportation challenges through these
alternative revenue methods, even though they are primarily
locally determined efforts.
This misalignment of transportation funding and
decision-making creates a number of problems. First of all,
because regions determine a large portion of spending
decisions involving traditional funding mechanisms, the state
has relinquished its ability to affect transportation
policymaking in ways that could help achieve the state's
changing mobility and environmental goals. Alternatively, the
state makes it more difficult for regions and locals to enlist
alternative funding methods to address their own unique
challenges and priorities. It seems reasonable to begin
unwinding this tangled mess, and this bill is a step toward
that end.
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HOT lanes are an alternative funding strategy that can empower
regional entities to begin addressing their own transportation
needs with locally-determined funding methods. Existing state
law, however, makes this alternative exceedingly difficult for
regions to implement. By enabling CTC to review and deem
eligible any number of HOT lane facilities in the state
without restriction, this bill begins to create easier access
for locals to this funding strategy. The Legislature may wish
to make this tool available to regions without creating
unnecessary hoops that could discourage regional entities, but
existing law is still vague on what entity officially approves
these projects. Therefore the committee may wish to amend the
bill to clarify that the CTC is approving eligible projects,
not just determining their eligibility.
3.Report to the Legislature . According to LACMTA, the intent of
the ExpressLanes program is to test innovative strategies to
alleviate congestion, maximize freeway capacity, and enhance
transit alternatives in the I-10 and I-110 corridors. In
addition to allowing single-occupant vehicles to use
high-occupancy vehicle lanes for a fee, LACMTA intends to
increase bus service that currently operates in those lanes as
well as make a variety of improvements to transit facilities
in the region. The original authorization of the
demonstration program, SB 1422, required LACMTA to provide a
report to the Legislature on, among other things, the impact
of the program on carpoolers and affected communities, as well
as how the program impacted transit service or other
alternative modes of transportation. This bill eliminates
that reporting requirement. Given the unique nature of this
demonstration program, the report to the Legislature could
shed light on several potential lessons learned that could
inform future HOT lane programs of this type and, therefore,
could provide real value. The committee may wish to amend the
bill to include the report requirement in existing law so that
the Legislature might apply lessons learned from the program
to future project requirements.
4.To what should excess revenue go ? As of the publishing of
this analysis, the only letter of opposition sent to the
committee was from the Professional Engineers in California
Government (PECG), who oppose the bill unless it is amended to
provide a reasonable amount of HOT lane revenue to the state
for maintenance and operations of the state highway system.
This concern relates to a larger issue involving how excess
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revenues from alternative funding sources should be spent.
According to Caltrans and the CTC, the state is underfunding
the maintenance of its transportation system. The Legislature
has been unwilling to increase transportation resources at the
state level, and therefore advocates for the system are
looking for any opportunity to identify new resources. As
noted in a previous comment, however, the Legislature should
begin working to link the source of funds with the
decision-making authority of how those funds are spent. Local
and regional entities authorizing new funding streams should
determine what those funds support, while the state should
more effectively administer statewide revenues.
It appears PECG is advocating for more than the cost of
maintaining the toll lane on the state's highway. In some
ways it seems unfair, and counterproductive, to ask a local
entity to increase taxes or fees on its own constituents only
to redistribute the funds to be spent elsewhere in the state.
The Legislature should consider carefully what precedent this
might set, and whether doing so would simply discourage local
and regional entities from exploring future alternative
funding opportunities. On the other hand, it seems very
reasonable for local entities to fund the ongoing maintenance
of any new facility on the state system, instead of expecting
the rest of the state to subsidize that maintenance cost.
This bill is currently unclear about who is to fund the
maintenance of the HOT lane. To provide more clarity, the
committee may wish to amend the bill to require, in the
cooperative agreement between LACMTA and Caltrans, that toll
revenues fund the ongoing maintenance of the HOT lanes.
5.Technical amendment .
Page 2, line 4, delete "143" and add "6820 of Public
Contract Code".
Page 2, lines 14-16, reinstitute the CTC public hearing
requirements.
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday, April 23,
SB 1298 (HERNANDEZ) Page 7
2014.)
SUPPORT: Avalon Church of Christ
Bethany Baptist Church of West Los Angeles
Bible Enrichment Fellowship International Church
Bryant Temple
Christ the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church
Christian's Community Center
City on the Hill
Congregational Church of Christian Fellowship
Divine Deliverance Ministries
Foothill Transit
Grace Temple Baptist Church
Greater True Light M.B.C., Inc.
Greater Zion Church Family
HNTB Corporation
LAX Coastal Chamber of Commerce
Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
Los Angeles County Business Federation
Los Angeles World Airports
Macedonia Baptist Church
Mount Moriah Baptist Church of Los Angeles, Inc.
Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church
The Music Center
New Shady Grove Missionary Baptist Church
Paradise Baptist Church
Saint Paul Baptist Church
San Bernardino Associated Governments
Southern California Association of Governments
St. Andrews Missionary Baptist Church
The True Friendship Missionary Baptist Church
True Vine Baptist Church
Weller Street Missionary Baptist Church
OPPOSED: Professional Engineers in California Government