BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 1811
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: buchanan
VERSION: 4/8/14
Analysis by: Eric Thronson FISCAL: no
Hearing date: June 17, 2014
SUBJECT:
Carpool access to high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes
DESCRIPTION:
This bill allows the Alameda County Transportation Commission to
restrict high-occupancy vehicle access to its high-occupancy
toll lanes contingent on the vehicle having an electronic
transponder.
ANALYSIS:
In 1970, the Legislature passed and the governor signed AB 1
(Biddle), Chapter 1295, which, among other things, authorized
the state to construct preferential freeway lanes for
high-occupancy vehicles (HOV lanes). AB 1 specified that it was
the intent of the Legislature to encourage individual citizens
to pool their vehicular resources and thereby lessen emission of
air pollutants.
The theory behind carpool-only lanes is that, in heavily
congested areas, these lanes should be less congested than
all-purpose lanes and therefore faster, inducing people who
might otherwise not carpool to do so in order to avoid the
heaviest congestion. Increasing the number of carpools, in
turn, should reduce the overall number of cars travelling in the
corridor (as drivers leave their cars at home in favor of
sharing a ride with someone). In order to be effective, HOV
lanes must be less congested than other lanes, otherwise the
incentive is lost. Highway lanes with lower congestion
typically are able to accommodate more vehicles and still
maintain their allure. This additional capacity has value.
AB 2032 (Dutra), Chapter 418, Statutes of 2004, authorized the
San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), the Sunol Smart
Carpool Lane Joint Powers Authority, the Santa Clara Valley
Transportation Authority (VTA), and the Alameda County
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Congestion Management Agency (now known as the Alameda County
Transportation Commission or ACTC) to construct HOV lanes and
convert them to HOT lanes. HOT lanes are HOV lanes in which the
administering agency sells any extra capacity to toll-paying
single-occupant vehicles. AB 2032 declared the Legislature's
intent that these HOT lanes increase efficiency of the
transportation system by taking advantage of existing capacity
without forfeiting the congestion mitigation and air quality
benefits provided by HOV lanes.
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 attempt to
ensure that operation of the toll facility does not undermine
the intended benefits of promoting carpooling with access to the
faster HOV lane.
Existing law requires that high-occupancy vehicles have
unrestricted access to the HOT lanes authorized by AB 2032 at
all times.
This bill allows ACTC to restrict high-occupancy vehicle access
to its HOT lanes contingent on the vehicle having an electronic
transponder for law enforcement purposes.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . According to the author, this bill is necessary to
ensure that statute is flexible enough to accommodate rapidly
changing technology. Current law does not allow ACTC to
restrict carpool access to the HOT lanes by requiring the use
of a transponder. ACTC feels, however, that implementing a
policy requiring the use of transponders by both toll-paying
single-occupant vehicles and non-paying carpoolers will enable
it to enforce appropriate use of the lanes and improve overall
performance of its facilities.
2.What would this restriction mean ? Currently, any vehicle with
two or more occupants can enter into the HOT lane in Alameda
County without paying a toll. This bill may result in that no
longer being the case, as passage of the bill would enable
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ACTC to adopt a policy in which only vehicles with switchable
transponders will be able to access for free any HOT lanes in
the county. A switchable transponder is like a Fastrak device
with a switch on it that allows the driver of the vehicle to
signal the number of occupants in the vehicle. In this way, a
driver can switch from a toll-paying single-occupant driver to
a non-paying carpooler with a flip of the switch on his or her
transponder.
ACTC will not be the first public agency in California to
restrict carpool access by requiring a transponder. The
express lane on SR 91, operated by Orange County
Transportation Authority, as well as the toll bridges in the
Bay Area, require carpoolers to use transponders to take
advantage of the free or reduced fares on their facilities.
The HOT lanes operated by Los Angeles County Metropolitan
Transportation Authority (LACMTA) on Interstates 10 and 110
require switchable transponders for carpools. Existing law
authorizing these entities to operate toll facilities does not
require them to provide carpoolers unrestricted access,
enabling them to require transponders.
According to LACMTA, their market research found that more
than 70 percent of existing carpoolers would continue to
carpool even with a transponder requirement, because they like
the idea of reducing the number of cheaters in the lanes.
LACMTA's finding also suggests that nearly 30 percent of
carpoolers responded that they would not continue to carpool
with the transponder requirement. Research related to prior
bills involving the privacy aspects of transponders suggests
that there is a segment of society who prefer not to use
transponders for fear of the government or others tracking
their movement and location. Others are distrustful of or
uncomfortable with technology in general and oppose using
electronic transponders for those reasons. Finally, visitors
from out of town likely do not own transponders and therefore
would be restricted from using the HOT lanes.
Regardless of the reason, adding this restriction for
carpoolers to accessing the HOT lanes will likely lead to a
reduction in high-occupant vehicles in the lane. The only
carpoolers accessing the lane will be those who are
intentional carpoolers, drivers of vehicles who preemptively
obtained a new switchable transponder for the purpose of
accessing the HOT lane. Incidental carpoolers, drivers who
might not want transponders for some reason, and carpoolers
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from out of town will be forced into the general-purpose
lanes.
3.Why switchable transponders ? ACTC contends that switchable
transponders are needed for HOT lanes in order to improve
enforcement of non-paying single occupant vehicles accessing
the lane. LACMTA reports that, by requiring switchable
transponders, their violation rate is 10 to 15 percent lower
than what other HOT lanes experience (from 20-25 percent
violation rate to 10-15 percent violation rate).
Administering agencies suggest that enforcement is important
because drivers who either pay the toll or appropriately
access the lane by carpooling get very frustrated and upset
when they see "cheaters" who access the lane illegally. It is
hard to understand, however, how one driver may know that
another driver in a single-occupant vehicle did not pay the
toll for accessing the lane and is therefore cheating the
system.
Another potential reason for requiring transponders and
improving enforcement is to reduce the number of vehicles
illegally accessing the lane and therefore creating increased
capacity and improved travel times for those appropriately
using the facility. Reducing the number of violators also
increases the number of toll-paying vehicles that can access
the lane before the lane slows down so much that it no longer
provides an incentive for use. Increasing the number of
toll-payers ultimately increases the amount of revenue the
administering agency can collect. Finally, improved
enforcement can help reduce the amount of leakage in the HOT
lane's revenue stream. Reducing the number of free riders by
10 percent could equate to essentially a 10 percent increase
in revenues.
4.The potential danger of HOT lanes . Many transportation
experts suggest that HOT lanes represent good transportation
finance policy because they can accomplish two aims - namely,
encouraging carpooling and selling access capacity to generate
much-needed transportation revenue. By accomplishing these
two goals, however, HOT lanes also create a tension between
competing interests. At some point, operators have to choose
between the two objectives, because successfully filling the
lane with carpoolers will adversely affect revenue, and vice
versa. The Legislature has clearly indicated in past
legislation that encouraging carpoolers is its priority.
Administering agencies operate these toll facilities and keep
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the revenue for their own use, potentially tempting them to
operate the lanes to maximize revenue instead of the number of
carpoolers. ACTC and others adamantly object to the idea that
they would do so, but the temptation remains.
Local agencies administer these toll facilities based on the
authority the Legislature grants them in enabling statute. At
the time it passed AB 2032, giving ACTC the authority to
operate two HOT lanes, the Legislature required unrestricted
access for carpoolers to the lanes. This bill allows ACTC to
institute a relatively minor restriction for carpoolers.
While there may be good reasons to enact this change, it is
important that the committee take note of the change in policy
and be aware of the precedent it sets. Further changes to HOT
lane policies have the potential of eroding the facilities'
ability to encourage carpooling for the sake of increasing HOT
lane revenue generation.
5.MTC supports, but seeks amendments . The Metropolitan
Transportation Commission (MTC), the Bay Area regional
transportation planning authority, supports the goal of this
bill to allow ACTC to require switchable transponders on its
HOT lane facilities. MTC's letter also recommends that the
committee take a comprehensive approach to HOT lane
legislation so that MTC can fulfill the goal of developing a
regional HOT lane network. MTC suggests that the committee
integrate changes in this bill with changes in AB 2090 (Fong),
also in this committee, in order to ensure that HOT lane rules
in the Bay Area can be consistent. MTC's concern is that, if
the committee passes this bill and AB 2090 in their present
versions, it will be more difficult to implement MTC's
regional HOT lane network because they contain slightly
different language. At this point it is unclear whether the
differences in the bills will cause a serious impediment for
MTC.
RELATED LEGISLATION:
AB 2090 (Fong) allows SANDAG and VTA to similarly restrict
carpool access to their HOT lanes contingent on the vehicle
having an electronic transponder. In addition, AB 2090 deletes
state level-of-service requirements and replaces them with other
appropriate performance measures. Also on today's agenda in the
Senate Transportation and Housing Committee.
Assembly Votes:
AB 1811 (BUCHANAN) Page 6
Floor: 71-2
Trans: 14-1
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday, June 11,
2014.)
SUPPORT: Alameda County Transportation Commission
(sponsor)
California Special Districts Association
Metropolitan Transportation Commission
OPPOSED: None received.