Transportation: toll lanes: Express Lane 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) . Existing law provides for various agencies, including the Sunol Smart Carpool Lane Joint Powers Authority, the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency, and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, to implement high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes on state highways, which are high-occupancy vehicle lanes that may also be used by vehicles without the requisite number of occupants upon payment of a toll. This bill would authorize the Bay Area Toll Authority to develop, administer, operate, and maintain a Bay Area Express Lane Network on state highways within the 9 Bay Area counties pursuant to a development plan recommended by the Bay Area Express Lane Network Project Oversight Committee, which the authority would be required to establish. The bill would authorize the authority to establish the fee structure for use of the express lanes and would require a public hearing in that regard. The bill would authorize the authority to determine the types of vehicles that may use the lanes. The bill would prohibit the authority from converting existing nontolled general purpose lanes to express lanes. The bill would provide for agreements between the authority and the Department of Transportation and the Department of the California Highway Patrol. The bill would require revenues from the express lanes to be deposited in the Bay Area Express Lane Network Account, which the authority would be required to create. The bill would authorize the authority to issue revenue bonds for the express lane program. The bill would specify the use of revenues in the account, including the net revenues remaining after expenses and obligations, including revenue bond obligations, for the express lane program are satisfied. The bill would provide for certain payments by the authority to the Department of Transportation and the Department of the California Highway Patrol relative to their responsibilities with regard to the express lane program, and would continuously appropriate the amount of those payments to those agencies for those purposes. The bill would require the Sunol Smart Carpool Lane Joint Powers Authority, the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency, and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority to enter into agreements with the Bay Area Toll Authority by January 1, 2011, to provide for the transfer of their rights and obligations relative to HOT lane projects to the Bay Area Toll Authority. The bill would enact other related provisions. Existing law specifies certain major projects that may be undertaken with toll revenues from the Bay Area state-owned toll bridges. This bill would provide that the Bay Area Express Lane Network is eligible for funding from bridge toll revenues under certain conditions. Existing law provides for the Department of Transportation, in cooperation with various agencies, to develop and adopt functional specifications and standards for an automatic vehicle identification system for toll collection purposes on toll facilities. This bill would require the Bay Area Toll Authority, in its role as the administrator of the automatic vehicle identification system, among other things, to provide a cash-based opportunity for customers to obtain an account for paying tolls that does not require the customer to provide a name or address. Existing law authorizes the Department of Transportation and local authorities, with respect to highways under their respective jurisdictions, to authorize the exclusive or preferential use if highway lanes for high-occupancy vehicles. Existing law requires the department to obtain the approval of the applicable transportation planning agency or county transportation commission prior to implementing this provision. This bill would authorize the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, in cooperation with the department, to increase the vehicle occupancy qualification requirements for any vehicle using an express lane located within the geographic jurisdiction of the commission by one additional passenger above the occupancy level required on January 1, 2010. Because this bill would mandate various actions to be undertaken by the Bay Area Toll Authority, it would thereby impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.