BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 2542 Page 1 Date of Hearing: May 4, 2016 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Lorena Gonzalez, Chair AB 2542 (Gatto) - As Amended March 15, 2016 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Transportation |Vote:|15 - 0 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No SUMMARY: This bill requires that, prior to the California Transportation Commission (CTC) approving a capacity-increasing project or a major street or highway lane realignment project, Caltrans or a regional transportation planning agency must demonstrate that reversible lanes were considered for the project. FISCAL EFFECT: AB 2542 Page 2 Unknown costs to Caltrans and regional planning agencies. Costs would in part depend on the level of analysis required by the CTC to demonstrate adequate consideration of incorporating reversible lanes into any project. Assuming that instances where use of such lanes would be practical is quite limited, the costs of this bill should not be significant. COMMENTS: Background and Purpose. Reversible lanes add peak-direction capacity to a two-way road and decrease congestion by "borrowing" available lane capacity from the other (off-peak) direction. The lanes are particularly beneficial where the cost to increase capacity is especially expensive, like on bridges and in dense urban areas. In California, reversible lanes were first inaugurated on the Golden Gate Bridge in October 1963. Today, in addition to the Golden Gate Bridge, reversible lanes are used on the San Diego-Coronado Bridge, Interstate 15 in San Diego, and, until recently, in the Caldecott Tunnel. According to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (Institute), the decision to consider reversible lanes is usually based on the need to mitigate recurrent congestion. Its use is most applicable on multi-lane roadways with a directional imbalance in excess of 65/35% with a predominance of through traffic and predictable congestion patterns. Reasons agencies give for using reversible lanes include: congestion mitigation, queue length, the need to decrease travel time, and the need to improve the overall corridor level of service. AB 2542 Page 3 Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081