BILL NUMBER: AB 744 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Torrico
FEBRUARY 26, 2009
An act to add Section 30914.6 to the Streets and Highways Code,
relating to transportation.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 744, as introduced, Torrico. Transportation: Bay Area
high-occupancy vehicle network.
Existing law specifies the respective powers and duties of the Bay
Area Toll Authority and the Department of Transportation relative to
the operation of the state-owned Bay Area toll bridges and the
allocation of toll bridge revenues. Existing law provides for the
department to designate certain lanes for the exclusive use of buses
and high-occupancy vehicles (HOVs).
This bill would authorize the authority to acquire, construct,
administer, and operate a value pricing high-occupancy vehicle
network program on state highways within the geographic jurisdiction
of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, as specified. The bill
would authorize capital expenditures for this program to be funded
from program revenues, revenue bonds, and revenue derived from tolls
on state-owned toll bridges within the geographic jurisdiction of the
commission. The bill would authorize the use of the high-occupancy
vehicle lanes in the program by single-occupant vehicles for a fee,
as specified.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) It is the intent of the Legislature to develop and implement a
Bay Area Express High Occupancy Toll (HOT) Lane Network (network)
with the following objectives:
(1) To more effectively manage the region's freeways in order to
provide higher vehicle and passenger throughput and to reduce delays
for those traveling within each travel corridor.
(2) To provide an efficient, effective, consistent, and seamless
system for network customers.
(3) To provide benefits to travelers within each corridor
commensurate with the revenues collected in that corridor, including
expanded travel options and funding to support nonhighway options
that enhance effectiveness and throughput.
(4) To implement the network using a rapid delivery approach that
takes advantage of the existing highway right-of-way to deliver the
network in an expedited timeframe.
(5) To use toll revenue collected from the HOT network for the
purposes of operating the network, maintaining HOT system equipment
and software, providing transit services and improvements in the
corridors, financing and constructing the HOT network, and providing
other corridor improvements.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the network be
developed in a collaborative manner that includes the congestion
management agencies, the Department of Transportation, the Department
of the California Highway Patrol, and the Bay Area Toll Authority.
This collaborative process should establish policies for
implementation of the HOT network, including, but not limited to,
phasing of HOV conversion and HOT construction, phasing of corridor
investment plan elements, and occupancy and pricing policies for HOT
network operations.
(c) It is the intent of the Legislature that the network utilize a
corridor-based structure that recognizes commute sheds and
geographic communities of interest as the most effective and
user-responsive models for the HOT network facilities implementation.
(d) It is the intent of the Legislature that the network reinvest
revenues generated in the corridor to provide benefits to all
travelers in the corridor, including additional capital improvements
on the freeway and parallel arterials, transit capital operations
that increase throughput capacity in the corridor, and enhanced
operations and management of the corridor.
(e) It is the intent of the Legislature that corridor investment
plans, developed by stakeholder agencies within the corridor, guide
the use of toll revenues to capital and operating programs serving
the corridor commensurate with the revenue generated by each
corridor.
(f) It is the intent of the Legislature that, the network, provide
customers a simple, consistent, and efficient system that is easy to
use and includes the following elements:
(1) Consistent geometric design.
(2) Consistent signage.
(3) Safe and simple operations.
(4) Common technology.
(5) Common marketing, logo, and terminology.
(g) It is the intent of the Legislature that in establishing the
network a collaborative process determine the best financing
mechanism, which could include using the state-owned toll bridge
enterprise as a financing pledge to construct the network.
SEC. 2. Section 30914.6 is added to the Streets and Highways Code,
to read:
30914.6. (a) Notwithstanding Sections 149 and 30800, and Section
21655.5 of the Vehicle Code, the authority may acquire, construct,
administer, and operate a value pricing high-occupancy vehicle
network program on state highways within the geographic jurisdiction
of the commission that the commission has determined will reduce
congestion on or make improvements to travel in the toll bridge and
transportation network. Capital expenditures for the program may be
funded from the following:
(1) Program revenues.
(2) Revenue bonds issued pursuant to this section.
(3) To the extent the authority elects to do so, from revenue
derived from tolls on bridges named in Section 30910 and revenue
bonds issued pursuant to Section 30961.
(b) The program, under the circumstances described in subdivision
(c), may direct and authorize the entry and use of the high-occupancy
vehicle lanes in the corridors in the region identified in
subdivision (a) by single-occupant vehicles for a fee. The fee
structure shall be established from time to time by the authority.
(c) Single-occupant vehicles that are certified or authorized by
the authority for entry into, and use of, the high-occupancy vehicle
lanes identified in subdivision (a) are exempt from Section 21655.5
of the Vehicle Code, and the driver shall not be in violation of the
Vehicle Code because of that entry and use.