BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 1721
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: linder
VERSION: 4/24/14
Analysis by: Erin Riches FISCAL: no
Hearing date: June 10, 2014
SUBJECT:
High-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes: low-emission vehicles
DESCRIPTION:
This bill provides toll-free or reduced-rate passage in HOT
lanes for certain single-occupant, low-emission vehicles with a
Clean Air Vehicle program sticker.
ANALYSIS:
A high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane, also known as a carpool
lane, aims to promote and encourage ridesharing, thereby
alleviating traffic congestion and improving air quality.
Depending on the particular HOV lane, a vehicle must have a
minimum of either two or three occupants in order to access the
lane.
Existing state law exempts certain clean, alternative-fuel
vehicles from HOV lane occupancy requirements, so that a vehicle
with just one occupant may use an HOV lane if it displays a
Clean Air Vehicle sticker. Currently, the state Department of
Motor Vehicles (DMV) issues two types of stickers, white and
green, under the Clean Air Vehicle program. Vehicles eligible
for white stickers are typically pure battery electric vehicles,
dedicated compressed natural gas or liquid petroleum gas
vehicles, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. State law does not
limit white sticker issuance; as of May 5, 2014, DMV had issued
47,516 white stickers. Vehicles eligible for green stickers are
generally plug-in hybrid vehicles. State law caps the number of
green stickers at 40,000; DMV reached this number on May 9,
2014. Both programs expire on January 1, 2019.
A HOT lane, also known as an express lane, allows
single-occupant vehicles to access an HOV lane by paying a toll.
HOT lanes typically employ a method known as congestion
pricing. Under congestion pricing, the amount of the toll
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varies in accordance with traffic congestion levels, so that as
congestion in HOT lanes increases, the toll amount increases.
As the price to use the HOT lane goes up, fewer people choose to
use it, thereby reducing demand for the facility and maintaining
traffic flow. Existing law authorizes local agencies to
establish HOT lanes in half a dozen counties across the state.
Existing state law exempts all vehicles with green or white
stickers from paying tolls in HOT lanes.
Existing law authorizes the Metropolitan Transportation
Commission (MTC), serving as the Bay Area Toll Authority, to
grant toll-free or reduced-rate passage to carpools on toll
bridges. If MTC does so, it must grant the same toll-free or
reduced-rate passage to a vehicle with a green or white sticker,
even if it is a single-occupant vehicle rather than a carpool.
This bill provides that a toll agency may impose reduced-rate
tolls on vehicles with a green or white sticker accessing the
agency's HOT lanes.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . The author states that the sponsor of this bill,
Riverside County Transportation Commission (RCTC), has
invested $351 million in the Interstate 15 Corridor
Improvement Project (I-15 CIP). This project will be funded
by voter-approved Measure A sales taxes and toll revenues, but
no state funds. The author asserts that although local
agencies incur millions of dollars in debt to build HOT lanes,
the state interferes with local tolling policy and reduces
revenue available to meet repayment requirements by exempting
clean air vehicles from tolls in HOT lanes. The author states
that this bill would protect RCTC's investment by allowing HOT
lane operators to charge clean air vehicles a reduced toll.
2.Exemptions for clean air vehicles from HOT lane tolls . SB 535
(Yee), Chapter 215, Statutes of 2010, which created the green
sticker program, specified that vehicles with green stickers
were not exempt from paying tolls for HOT lane pilot projects
on Highways 10 and 110 in Los Angeles for an initial period.
At the time, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Authority
expressed concern that granting access to these vehicles could
congest the lanes enough to jeopardize federal funding for the
projects. Subsequent legislation, AB 2405 (Blumenfield),
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Chapter 674, Statutes of 2012, exempts vehicles with green or
white stickers from paying tolls in HOT lanes. (Pursuant to
SB 535, the exemption did not apply to HOT lanes on Highway
110 until after November 1, 2013 and to HOT lanes on Highway
10 until after March 1, 2014.) While supporters of AB 2405
cited free HOT lane access as a key incentive to purchase
low-emission vehicles, opponents argued that exempting these
vehicles from tolls would undermine funding capacity for
delivering transportation infrastructure.
3.Are HOT lanes the wave of the future ? Although the state has
not increased its gasoline excise tax - the primary funding
source for state roads - since 1994, public support for a gas
tax increase is thin. Meanwhile, the California
Transportation Commission has documented billions of dollars
in maintenance and rehabilitation needs for the state's
transportation infrastructure. As a result, local agencies
are seeking alternatives - including HOT lanes - to fund
transportation maintenance, rehabilitation, and expansion.
The current federal transportation funding act provides
increased flexibility to local authorities to convert HOV
lanes to HOT lanes, making HOT lanes an even more attractive
option.
4.Carrots vs. sticks . Supporters of the Clean Air Vehicle
Program cite green and white stickers as a critical incentive
to persuade consumers to purchase low-emission vehicles.
Exempting vehicles with green and white stickers from tolls in
HOT lanes, however, erodes the revenue-raising capacity of
these facilities. In addition, it erodes the ability of HOT
lane operators to control traffic flow in these lanes.
Because vehicles with green and white stickers do not have to
pay a toll, these drivers are not discouraged from using the
HOT lane when congestion increases and the toll goes up.
Between March 2013 and May 2014, DMV issued more than 87,000
green and white stickers. Exempting these vehicles from
tolls, while providing an incentive to purchase low-emission
vehicles, constitutes a significant revenue loss for HOT lane
operators. This bill would provide a compromise by allowing
local authorities to charge a reduced-rate toll to vehicles
with a green or white sticker.
RELATED LEGISLATION:
AB 2013 (Muratsuchi), also being heard by this committee today,
raises the cap on the "green sticker" Clean Air Vehicle program
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from 40,000 to 85,000.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 72-2
Trans: 15-0
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday, June 4,
2014.)
SUPPORT: Riverside County Transportation Commission
(sponsor)
Southern California Association of Governments
OPPOSED: None received.