BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1500
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Date of Hearing: March 20, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 1500 (Lieu) - As Amended: April 29, 2009
Policy Committee:
TransportationVote:9-5
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill extends the sunset date, from January 1, 2011 to
January 1, 2016, on a program granting high occupancy vehicle
(HOV) driving privileges to electric vehicles and natural gas
vehicles whether or not they have the required number of
occupants. This special access would not be extended for hybrid
vehicles.
Extending the program continues the requirement that Caltrans
remove the special HOV access provided by this program during
peak congestion periods on any HOV lane where the department
finds that the operation of such vehicles will significantly
increase HOV lane congestion.
FISCAL EFFECT
Caltrans devotes eight staff statewide to monitor and report on
the performance of its 1,300 miles of HOV lanes pursuant to
federal requirements, thus this monitoring would continue even
with the sunset of this program. Nevertheless, there is some
marginal cost, probably under $150,000 for the department to
continue monitoring the additional impact that the low-emission
vehicle privilege has on HOV lane performance. Furthermore,
since the special access to HOV lanes for hybrid vehicles-which
constitute the vast majority of low-emission vehicles currently
allowed special access-will not be continued past the current
sunset date, it is far less likely that the remaining low
emission vehicles in the program would contribute significantly
to any HOV lane congestion.
COMMENTS
AB 1500
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1)Background . An HOV lane, commonly referred to as a "carpool"
or "diamond" lane, is part of a traffic management strategy
designed to reduce the number of single occupancy vehicles
during peak periods of traffic congestion. These lanes are
intended to provide an incentive for commuters to form
carpools by offering reduced travel times. AB 71
(Cunneen)/Chapter 330 of 1999, extended to certain "Clean Air"
vehicles the privilege of using HOV lanes even when required
occupancy levels are not met. Vehicles meeting AB 71's
standard are generally limited to battery-powered vehicles and
those operating on compressed natural gas, neither of which is
especially prevalent in California's vehicle fleet.
AB 2628 (Pavley)/Chapter 725 of 2004, extended the Clean Air
provisions of AB 71 to hybrid vehicles that achieve 45 miles
per gallon fuel economy. Since allowing large numbers of
hybrids into HOV lanes would reduce the effectiveness of the
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 of
2006, increased the limit on hybrid stickers to 85,000 and
extended AB 2628's 2008 sunset date to 2011. (The DMV reached
the 85,000 sticker cap for hybrids in February 2007 and is no
longer issuing new hybrid stickers.)
In June of 2007, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
requested Caltrans to submit a plan to address "HOV lane
degradation" on California freeways. Caltrans' analysis had
indicated that 54% of its HOV lanes had experienced such
degradation-the lane does not maintain 45 mph or greater
operating speed during peak commute hours for 90% or more of
180 consecutive workdays. Recognizing that one component of
HOV lane congestion may be the presence of hybrid vehicles,
one of the options that Caltrans is considering is banning
hybrids in certain HOV lanes, as it is already authorized to
do.
2)Purpose . This bill extends, for an additional five years, the
authorization for natural gas and electric vehicles to operate
in HOV lanes but would allow that authorization for hybrids to
sunset as scheduled on January 1, 2011. This is in
recognition that, while natural gas and electric vehicles are
small in number and the extended authorization might continue
AB 1500
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providing a purchase incentive for these vehicles, the number
of hybrids in California has already surpassed the
85,000-vehicle cap, thus an HOV lane privilege no longer
provides a purchase incentive.
3)Related Legislation . A similar bill, SB 535 (Yee), is pending
in Senate Appropriations.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081