BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: SB 535
SENATOR ALAN LOWENTHAL, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: yee
VERSION: 6/24/10
Analysis by: Jennifer Gress FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: August 10, 2010
SUBJECT:
High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes: low-emission vehicles
DESCRIPTION:
This bill expands the types of and lengths of time that
specified low-emission vehicles may use HOV lanes.
ANALYSIS:
In 1999, the Legislature passed and the governor signed AB 71
(Cunneen), Chapter 330, to allow the following low-emission
vehicles to access HOV lanes, regardless of vehicle occupancy:
A vehicle that meets the state's super ultra-low emission
vehicle (SULEV) standard for exhaust emissions and the federal
inherently low-emission vehicle (ILEV) standard for
evaporative emissions (e.g., all-electric vehicles such as the
Tesla Roadster or the RAV 4 EV).
A vehicle that was produced during the 2004 model year or
earlier that meets the state's ultra-low emission vehicle
(ULEV) standard for exhaust emissions and the federal ILEV
standard.
To differentiate these vehicles, the Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV) issues white stickers to be affixed on the
vehicle. There is no limit on the number of these vehicles that
may be issued white stickers. As of March of this year, DMV has
issued 10,082 sets of white stickers. White-sticker vehicles
are eligible for free or reduce-passage toll rates on Bay Area
toll bridges, regardless of their occupancy, if those rates are
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offered to high-occupancy vehicles.
In 2004, AB 2628 (Pavley), Chapter 725, allowed the following
hybrid vehicles to access HOV lanes, pending approval by the
federal government:
A hybrid vehicle or an alternative fuel vehicle that meets the
state's advanced technology partial zero-emission standard (AT
PZEV) standard for criteria pollutant emissions and has a 45
miles per gallon (mpg) or greater fuel economy highway rating.
A hybrid vehicle that was produced during the 2004 model year
or earlier that has a 45 mpg or greater fuel economy highway
rating and meets the state's ULEV, SULEV, or partial
zero-emission vehicle (PZEV) standards.
The DMV issues these vehicles yellow stickers. The Legislature
ultimately capped the number of vehicles that may be issued
yellow stickers at 85,000, a limit which was reached in 2007.
Yellow-sticker vehicles are not eligible for free or
reduced-passage toll rates on Bay Area toll bridges.
The authority to access HOV lanes expires for all four types of
vehicles on January 1, 2011.
Existing law requires the California Department of
Transportation (Caltrans) to assess, according to a specified
timeframe, whether HOV lanes have experienced significant
degradation due to access by hybrid vehicles with yellow
stickers. Caltrans is authorized to restrict single-occupant
vehicles with either white or yellow stickers from accessing
segments of HOV lanes during periods of peak congestion if it
finds that the lane has a specified level of service, the
operation of these vehicles will significantly increase
congestion, and it is not feasible to alleviate congestion by
other means.
This bill :
Extends the authority for white-sticker vehicles to use HOV
lanes from January 1, 2011 until January 1, 2015.
Extends the authority for yellow-sticker vehicles to use HOV
lanes from January 1, 2011 until June 30, 2011.
SB 535 (YEE) Page 3
Establishes a new class of vehicles that may use HOV lanes -
Enhanced AT PZEVs - and authorizes access from January 1, 2012
until January 1, 2015.
Provides that drivers of single-occupant Enhanced AT PZEVs are
not exempt from paying tolls on the high-occupancy toll (HOT)
lanes under development on State Highway Route (SR 10) and SR
110 in Los Angeles.
Deletes the requirement that before Caltrans may prohibit
access to certain HOV lanes by low-emission vehicles because
of congestion in those lanes, it must make a finding that
demonstrates the infeasibility of alleviating congestion in
the HOV lanes by other means, including by raising the
occupancy standards in those lanes.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . The purpose of the bill, which is sponsored by
General Motors, is to provide incentives to consumers to
purchase the next generation of more technologically advanced
vehicles by giving them access to HOV lanes.
2.History of bill . The bill was passed by the Assembly and has
returned to the Senate for concurrence in Assembly amendments.
Because the current version of the bill is substantially
different than what this committee passed previously, the
Rules Committee referred this bill under Senate Rule 29.10 for
a hearing on the Assembly amendments. At today's 29.10
hearing, the committee may not amend the bill further and may
only hold the bill or return the bill as approved by the
committee to the Senate Floor.
This committee passed this bill as a "work-in-progress" on
April 28th, 2009 on a 7 to 0 vote. As passed, the bill
extended the sunset date on white-sticker vehicles to January
1, 2015 in order to allow the author and sponsor to determine
appropriate emission and fuel economy standards for the
vehicles the sponsor seeks to support, as well as to provide
this committee an opportunity to hold informational hearings
on the policy of providing low-emission vehicles access to HOV
lanes.
3.Background on emissions categories . ARB has established
several categories that describe the emissions profile of a
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vehicle. These are listed in the following table along with
an example of the technology used in that vehicle, in order
from the least emitting to the most. The next generation of
clean vehicles is reflected in Enhanced AT PZEVs and ZEVs. As
the table suggests, there are a variety of technologies used
in those vehicles, many of which are in development.
---------------------------------------------------------------
| | |
| Emissions Category | Technology Example |
| | |
|------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|ZEV |Battery (e.g., Tesla Roadster, |
|(zero-emission vehicle) |RAV 4 EV), hydrogen fuel cell |
| |(e.g., Honda Clarity) |
|------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|Enhanced AT PZEV |Uses a ZEV fuel such as a |
|(advanced technology partial |battery, coupled with an |
|zero-emission vehicle) |internal combustion engine |
| |(e.g., Volt) |
|------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|AT PZEV |Gas-electric hybrid (e.g., |
|(advanced technology partial |Prius), natural gas (e.g., |
|zero-emission vehicle) |Honda Civic CNG), methanol fuel |
| |cell |
|------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|PZEV |Extremely clean, conventional |
|(partial zero-emission |gas-fueled (~33% of new |
|vehicle) |vehicles for sale are PZEVs) |
|------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|SULEV |Very clean, conventional |
|(super ultra low-emission |gas-fueled vehicle |
|vehicle) | |
|------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|ULEV |Conventional gas-fueled (over |
|(ultra low-emission vehicle) |half of new vehicles offered |
| |for sale in CA are ULEVs) |
|------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|LEV |Conventional |
|(low-emission vehicle) |gas-fueled |
---------------------------------------------------------------
4.The purpose of HOV lanes . In allowing for the development of
HOV lanes, the Legislature declared its intent to "stimulate
and encourage the development of ways and means of relieving
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traffic congestion on California highways and, at the same
time, to encourage individual citizens to pool their vehicular
resources and thereby conserve fuel and lessen emission of air
pollutants." The committee may wish to consider the extent to
which allowing single-occupant vehicles into the HOV lanes may
undermine the policy objectives of encouraging carpooling and
reducing traffic congestion.
5.HOV lane degradation . The Federal Highways Administration
(FHWA) granted conditional approval to allow hybrid vehicles
in HOV lanes, as authorized by AB 2628 (Pavley), in April
2006. FHWA required Caltrans to monitor and report on the
performance of HOV lanes and to take steps to address
degradation (i.e., congestion), if necessary.
In July 2006, after 50,000 yellow stickers were issued to
hybrid vehicles under the program, Caltrans assessed
congestion in the HOV lanes using both the state and federal
standards of performance. Under the state standard, Caltrans
found that the number of congested HOV lane segments increased
from 7 to 12 percent. Under the federal standard, Caltrans
found that approximately 46 percent of HOV lane segments
operated under degraded conditions. While the increased
congestion could not be attributed solely to single-occupant
hybrid vehicles accessing the lanes, FHWA nonetheless asserted
that these vehicles did not have to be the cause of
degradation for Caltrans to take action to reduce HOV lane
congestion and requested that Caltrans develop a plan for
improving the performance of HOV lanes.
Caltrans submitted the California High Occupancy Vehicle Lane
Degradation Reduction Plan to FHWA in August 2007. The plan
outlines 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.
Following the submittal of that plan, Caltrans updated its
analysis of HOV lane degradation and submitted a supplemental
report to FHWA in September 2008. This updated analysis found
that, based on the federal standard, congestion increased on
HOV lanes from 46 percent to 54 percent. Given the growth in
both population and number of registered vehicles, degradation
is only likely to worsen.
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Given the current threat of congestion on the state's HOV
lanes and the possibility that this bill would result in
further degradation, the committee may wish to consider the
following two questions:
What are the possible consequences of allowing HOV lanes
to degrade further vs. continuing to incentivize
low-emission vehicles?
Are there incentives other than HOV lane access that
might be offered to encourage the development and
deployment of these vehicles?
1.Extension of HOV lane access for hybrids (yellow sticker
vehicles) . In addition to establishing a new category of
low-emission vehicles that may access HOV lanes, this bill
extends the HOV lane access provisions for hybrid vehicles by
six months. The rationale for extending the authority for
this class of vehicles, despite the fact that hybrids are now
widely available and enjoy broad consumer acceptance, is that
delaying the implementation of the access provisions for
Enhanced AT PZEVs to 2012 has created a gap between it and the
2011 expiration of the access provisions for hybrids. Hybrid
owners who would lose HOV lane privileges at the end of this
year may desire to replace their vehicle but not have an
alternative eligible for HOV lane access available to
purchase.
This bill, as well as AB 1500 (Lieu), Chapter 37, Statutes of
2010, extend HOV lane access for white sticker vehicles
without delay. Under the white sticker program, there are
several vehicles available for purchase currently, or will be
available by the end of this year or early next year, that
remain eligible for HOV lane access. Some of these include
the Honda Civic (compressed natural gas), Honda Clarity (fuel
cell electric hybrid), Nissan Leaf (battery electric), and
Tesla Roadster (battery electric).
2.Los Angeles' high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes . The bill
provides that Enhanced AT PZEVs shall not be exempt from
paying tolls use to the HOT lane facilities under development
on SR 10 and SR 110 in Los Angeles. Because high demand
exists for those lanes by carpoolers and the Los Angeles
Metropolitan Transportation Authority may not raise occupancy
standards while its HOT lane demonstration program is in
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effect, insufficient capacity exists in those lanes for
single-occupant low-emission vehicles to enter without paying
the toll.
3.Federal approval to reduce uncertainty . The authority for
states to allow "low-emission and energy-efficient" vehicles
to access HOV lanes is contained in federal law. The United
States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) is charged
with defining what constitutes "low-emission and
energy-efficient;" and the Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA) is responsible for approving a state's policy to allow
US EPA-approved low-emission and energy-efficient vehicles
into the HOV lanes. US EPA and FHWA have provided their
respective approvals for vehicles eligible for white stickers
to use the HOV lanes in California. At the time that AB 2628
was enacted to authorize hybrids (yellow-sticker vehicles), US
EPA had not determined what types of hybrids would meet the
definition of "low-emission and energy-efficient." To deal
with this uncertainty, AB 2628 included a provision that
prohibited its implementation until the state received the
necessary federal approvals. Because US EPA had not acted,
FHWA granted California a conditional approval to allow
hybrids to use HOV lanes, pending action by US EPA. US EPA
has recently issued a draft rule and determined that the
hybrids allowed in California's HOV lanes do not comply. US
EPA and FHWA have requested that California change its
criteria for determining which hybrid vehicles may access HOV
lanes, but California has not done so.
With regard to this bill, US EPA has not approved vehicles
that meet the criteria for an Enhanced AT PZEV as
"low-emission and energy-efficient," which is similar to the
situation the state faced when it authorized hybrids to access
HOV lanes. Unlike its predecessor, AB 2628, this bill does
not require federal approval prior to implementation.
Additionally, US EPA has already determined that California's
definition of yellow-sticker vehicles does not conform with
its proposal and FHWA is increasingly concerned about
congestion in the HOV lanes. It is unclear what will happen
if this bill is enacted and DMV issues stickers for Enhanced
AT PZEVs beginning January 1, 2012 absent federal approval.
If the federal government does not approve these vehicles to
use the HOV lanes, certainly the state risks the loss of
federal transportation funding. Perhaps more significantly,
however, consumers may feel extreme discontent if they
purchase a vehicle, begin using the HOV lane, and then are
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told that access is prohibited. It may make more sense to
treat Enhanced AT PZEVs in the same manner that the state
treated hybrids when it enacted AB 2628 and make
implementation contingent on receiving federal approval.
RELATED LEGISLATION
AB 1500 (Lieu), Chapter 37, Statutes of 2010, extends the sunset
date, from January 1, 2011 to January 1, 2015, on the law that
allows white-sticker vehicles to access HOV lanes.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 65-8
Appr: 15-0
Trans: 9-2
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday,
August 4, 2010)
SUPPORT: General Motors (sponsor)
California Electric Transportation Coalition
California Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition
Chrysler
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Tesla Motors
Toyota North America, Inc.
OPPOSED: None received.