BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 266
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: blumenfield
VERSION: 4/9/13
Analysis by: Erin Riches FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: July 2, 2013
SUBJECT:
High-occupancy lane (HOV) lanes: low-emission vehicles
DESCRIPTION:
This bill extends the "white sticker" and "green sticker" Clean
Air Vehicle programs, which allow certain low-emission vehicles
to access HOV lanes with a single occupant from January 1, 2015
to January 1, 2020 for white stickers and January 1, 2018 for
green stickers.
ANALYSIS:
A high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane, also known as a carpool
lane or diamond 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 during operational hours. Existing law exempts
certain clean, alternative-fuel vehicles from these occupancy
requirements, so that a vehicle with just one occupant may use
an HOV lane if it displays a Clean Air Vehicle sticker. The
state has implemented three clean air vehicle HOV sticker
programs:
White HOV stickers. AB 71 (Cunneen), Chapter 330, Statutes of
1999, established the
"white sticker program," which allows vehicles that meet certain
strict emission standards to drive in carpool lanes with a
single occupant. These vehicles are typically pure battery
electric vehicles, dedicated compressed natural gas or liquid
petroleum gas vehicles, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, such
as the Nissan Leaf, the Tesla Roadster, and the Honda Civic
CNG. State law places no limit on the number of stickers that
can be issued. As of May 31, 2013, the Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV) had issued 27,780 white stickers. This program
expires on January 1, 2015.
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Yellow HOV stickers (expired). AB 2628 (Pavley), Chapter 725,
Statutes of 2004, established the "yellow sticker program,"
which granted HOV lane access to certain single-occupant,
hybrid or alternatively fueled vehicles. Federal law allows
single-occupant vehicles in HOV lanes only if they have been
federally certified as low-emission vehicles; at that time, no
hybrid vehicles met federal emissions requirements. To
address this prohibition, AB 2628 conditioned its
implementation on the state receiving a federal waiver. In
April 2006, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) granted
conditional approval, enabling the yellow sticker program to
go into effect. Under this program, DMV issued yellow
stickers for the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid. The
number of vehicles that might be issued these stickers was
ultimately capped at 85,000, a limit that was reached in 2007;
all yellow stickers expired on July 1, 2011.
Green HOV stickers. SB 535 (Yee), Chapter 215, Statutes of
2010, established the "green sticker program," which allows
certain single-occupant vehicles - generally, plug-in hybrid
vehicles that meet the Air Resources Board's strictest
emission standard - to drive in carpool lanes. The only
vehicles eligible to date for green stickers are the Chevrolet
Volt, Ford C-Max Energi, Ford Fusion Energi, Toyota Prius
Plug-In, and Honda Accord Plug-In Hybrid. State law limits
the number of green stickers that DMV may issue to 40,000.
This program began on January 1, 2012. As of May 31, 2013,
DMV had issued 14,525 green stickers. These stickers are
valid until January 1, 2015.
This bill extends the "white sticker" program to January 1,
2020, and the "green sticker" program to January 1, 2018.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . The author states that under the Air Resources
Board's Advanced Clean Car Rules, California aims to have
zero-emission or plug-in hybrid cars account for 15 percent of
new vehicles sold each year by 2025. The author notes that
the Clean Air Vehicle Sticker Program is an important
incentive for clean car purchases and that just as more
manufacturers are entering the market with more clean and/or
zero-emission cars, the program is set to expire. The author
states that by providing long-term incentives to consumers for
making green vehicle choices, this bill helps to leverage
AB 266 (BLUMENFIELD) Page 3
California's position as the clean technology capital of the
world, create good jobs, and meet state emissions reduction
goals.
2.Does HOV access incentivize clean car purchases ? The primary
argument for granting low- or zero-emission vehicles access to
HOV or high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes is that it provides a
non-monetary incentive to purchase these vehicles, thereby
increasing the adoption of new technologies. Studies do not
overwhelmingly conclude that HOV access does in fact
incentivize this behavior. An April 2011 paper by Sharon
Shewmake of Vanderbilt University Law School and Lovell Jarvis
of University of California, Davis found that HOV lane access
was so important to some drivers that "many hybrid owners were
willing to pay upwards of $3,200 per sticker" - suggesting
that the stickers are indeed an effective incentive to get
people to buy clean cars. The study also noted, however, that
"despite having a high value, the stickers were less effective
at stimulating the demand for hybrid electric vehicles than an
equivalent cash subsidy." It could be argued that a cash
rebate might be a more efficient way to achieve the same goal.
3.Do single-occupant clean vehicles clog carpool lanes ? In
April 2006, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) granted
conditional approval to allow hybrid vehicles in HOV lanes,
enabling the yellow sticker program to go into effect. FHWA
required Caltrans to monitor and report on the performance of
HOV lanes and to take steps to address congestion if
necessary.
In July 2006, after the state had issued 50,000 yellow
stickers to eligible vehicles, Caltrans found that
approximately 46 percent of HOV lane segments operated under
degraded conditions. While Caltrans could not attribute the
increased congestion solely to single-occupant hybrid vehicles
accessing the lanes, FHWA asserted that these vehicles did not
have to be the cause of degradation in order for Caltrans to
take action to reduce HOV lane congestion. Accordingly, FHWA
requested that Caltrans develop a plan to improve the
performance of HOV lanes.
Caltrans submitted this report to FHWA in August 2007. The
plan outlined short- and long-term measures to improve HOV
lane performance, including increased enforcement, improved
system management, infrastructure improvements, public
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education, and, if necessary, a prohibition of single-occupant
hybrid vehicles from accessing the most congested segments of
the HOV lane network.
Caltrans' most recent HOV lane degradation report, submitted
to FHWA in November 2011, concluded that HOV lane degradation
may continue to be the result of high traffic demand and
congestion across the entire freeway facility rather than
attributed to the single occupancy hybrids alone.
While California's HOV lanes are indeed congested, this
congestion is not attributable solely to single-occupant clean
vehicles. Moreover, if Caltrans is able to attribute
unacceptable congestion levels to these cars, it has statutory
authority to ban them from HOV lanes and thereby override this
bill.
4.What's the hurry ? Both the white and green sticker programs
are in effect until January 1, 2015, well over a year from
now. The author notes, however, that many of the cars that
qualify for these stickers are leased rather than purchased,
generally through three-year leases; moreover, people who do
purchase these vehicles do so through five-year loans.
Providing long-term certainty will help incentivize people to
purchase these vehicles between now and 2015.
5.Should these programs be extended ? As noted on the Air
Resources Board website regarding the yellow sticker program,
"The California legislature limited the time of this early
hybrid vehicle program to help promote and encourage
development of newer plug-in hybrid and other zero emissions
technologies." Automakers are already working to develop
these technologies in response to the federal Corporate
Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
standards, which aim to increase fuel economy to the
equivalent of 54.5 miles per gallon for cars and light-duty
trucks by 2025. Automakers argue, however, that producing the
cars does no good if consumers are not motivated to buy them;
the green and white sticker programs provide consumer
incentives to do so.
6.Social equity concerns . For a variety of reasons,
low-emission vehicles often have higher purchase prices than
comparable gasoline-powered vehicles. These higher purchase
prices generally make low-emission vehicles that qualify for
HOV lane access unaffordable for lower-income drivers.
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Legislation passed last year, AB 2405 (Blumenfield), Chapter
674, Statutes of 2012, exempts low-emission vehicles with
green and white stickers from toll charges imposed on
single-occupant vehicles in HOT lanes. Thus, single-occupant
vehicles with green and white stickers now not only have
access to HOV lanes, but can drive in HOT lanes for free.
Some may question if it is appropriate to be able to "buy"
single-occupant access to lanes that were originally intended
to promote ridesharing.
7.Why different sunset dates ? The original version of this bill
extended both the white and green sticker programs to 2025.
To address concerns about the need to periodically review and
update these programs, the author amended this bill to move up
the sunset dates for the white and green sticker programs to
2020 and 2018, respectively. The author states that because
the green sticker program applies to transitional technology,
it is logical to impose a shorter sunset date for that
program. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which
opposes the bill unless amended, recommends amending this bill
to change the sunset date on both programs to January 1, 2018.
The committee may wish to consider amending this bill to
impose January 1, 2018, sunset dates on both programs.
8.Related legislation . This committee approved SB 286 (Yee), an
almost identical bill, on an 11-0 vote earlier this year. SB
286 would extend both the green and white sticker programs
until January 1, 2018. SB 286 is currently pending in the
Assembly Appropriations Committee. The authors have agreed to
hold both bills on their respective Floors until an agreement
is reached on the differing sunset dates for the white sticker
program.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 49-22
Appr: 13-4
Trans: 12-3
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday, June 26,
2013.)
SUPPORT: Plug In America
South Coast Air Quality Management District
OPPOSED: County of Orange
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Metropolitan Transportation Commission