BILL ANALYSIS �
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1811
Author: Buchanan (D)
Amended: 4/8/14 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 10-0, 6/17/14
AYES: DeSaulnier, Gaines, Beall, Cannella, Galgiani, Hueso,
Lara, Liu, Roth, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Pavley
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 71-2, 5/1/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : High-occupancy vehicle lanes
SOURCE : Alameda County Transportation Commission
DIGEST : This bill allows the Alameda County Transportation
Commission (ACTC) to restrict high-occupancy vehicle access to
its high-occupancy toll (HOT) 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
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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
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
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transponder for law enforcement purposes.
Comments
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 this
bill enables 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% 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% 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.
ACTC contends that switchable transponders are needed for HOT
lanes in order to improve enforcement of non-paying single
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occupant vehicles accessing the lane. LACMTA reports that, by
requiring switchable transponders, their violation rate is 10%
to 15% lower than what other HOT lanes experience (from 20-25%
violation rate to 10-15% 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.
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% could equate to
essentially a 10% increase in revenues.
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
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
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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.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/19/14)
Alameda County Transportation Commission (source)
California Special Districts Association
Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors
Metropolitan Transportation Commission
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : 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.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 71-2, 5/1/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Buchanan, Ian Calderon,
Campos, Chau, Ch�vez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Dababneh,
Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Beth
Gaines, Garcia, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Grove,
Hagman, Harkey, Roger Hern�ndez, Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer,
Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Medina, Melendez,
Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson,
Perea, V. Manuel P�rez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Rodriguez,
Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski,
Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A. P�rez
NOES: Gatto, Levine
NO VOTE RECORDED: Brown, Donnelly, Hall, Mansoor,
Ridley-Thomas, Salas, Vacancy
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JA:nl 6/19/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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