Legislators unite against practice of charging tolls for ride-sharers

Heather Churney tries to do her part for the environment by sharing the drive on the 91 Freeway between her home in Corona and her job in Orange County.

Updated, 11:34 a.m. June 23: The Simitian bill failed late Monday to make it out of the Assembly Transporation Committee after none of the members would make a motion for its approval. In killing the measure, Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), the committee’s chairwoman, said she did not want to limit the options that local transportation officials have to manage traffic congestion.

But even heading home with two other people in the car, the school worker has been hit with a $4.50 toll during rush hour for using express lanes normally free to carpoolers.

That is unfair and should be stopped, state lawmakers say.

In a clash over how best to unclog California’s freeways, Democratic and Republican legislators have united against the practice of charging tolls for ride-sharers, while local officials are defending the practice as necessary to keep traffic moving.

The state Senate has approved legislation that would block the Orange County Transportation Authority from continuing to charge tolls to carpoolers using the 91 Freeway express lanes, and prevent any expansion of the practice into other counties.

“California has carpool lanes for good reasons,” said Sen. Joe Simitian (D- Palo Alto), the bill’s author. “They encourage ride-sharing, they speed up traffic, and they fight air pollution. The last thing we should do is throw up barriers to folks who are keeping extra cars off the road.”

But OCTA Chief Executive Will Kempton, who is considering whether to extend tolls to carpoolers on part of the 405 Freeway, said that outlawing the practice could further choke freeways.

“Our pricing policy is flat-out based on providing free-flowing traffic at the least cost to the commuter,” Kempton said.

If carpoolers are given free use of all express lanes at rush hour, persuading more to use the lanes, it could require an increase in tolls for solo drivers to reduce their number so traffic could continue to flow, he said.

“That raises the question: Are individuals willing to pay more so carpoolers can ride free?” Kempton said.

The issue has come to a boil in Sacramento. Simitian’s bill passed the Senate this month on a rare bipartisan vote of 35 to 0 and faces its next test in an Assembly committee, where local transportation officials say they will push to defeat the measure or exclude the 91 Freeway.

Senate Democrats said the tolls undermine the state’s efforts to improve the environment, while anti-tax Republicans oppose having the government increase how much it takes out of the public’s pocket.

“We’re taxed enough and fee’d to death already,” said Sen. Tony Strickland (R- Thousand Oaks).

At issue is a tactic for reducing traffic congestion in which tolls on special lanes on freeways are adjusted up and down based on traffic volume. When traffic is anticipated to be heavier, tolls go up, discouraging motorists from using the lanes and therefore thinning out the congestion.

Thirteen projects are on the drawing board, including in Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange, Alameda and San Diego counties, to create express lanes in which individual drivers who pay a toll could ride in lanes also used by carpoolers.

In Los Angeles County, a project involving stretches of the 10 and 110 freeways would not charge a toll to carpoolers. But such charges do apply in other parts of the state, and lawmakers worry that the practice could expand in the future.

In Orange County, four lanes of the 91 Freeway between the Riverside County line and the 55 Freeway are express lanes in which individual motorists are charged tolls automatically through transponders in their cars. During peak hours, the toll can range from $5.35 to $9.90.

The lanes — two in each direction for 10 miles — were built by a private entity but purchased by the county transportation agency for $207.5 million in 2003.

Cars with at least three occupants are allowed to use the express lanes for free most of the time, but between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. those vehicles are charged 50% of the normal toll when heading east.

That helps officials manage the traffic flow on a particularly busy stretch of freeway, Kempton said.

Riverside County transportation officials are proposing an extension of the 91 Freeway’s express lanes into their county with the same idea of charging a reduced toll to carpoolers during some peak hours.

The legislation “could impair our flexibility to manage the traffic,” said John Standiford, a spokesman for the Riverside County Transportation Commission, which is asking Simitian to amend his measure.

Churney, who commutes to an admissions job at a private school, has mixed feelings about who is right in the policy dispute.

She agreed that charging carpoolers can be counterproductive and thinks that the bill guaranteeing them free passage has some merit.

“We’re trying to get people to carpool more and reduce emissions. It will make people carpool a bit more,” she said.

At the same time, she is grateful for the discount on the toll and worries that opening the lanes for free to all carpoolers could make her commute more of a slog.

“It could defeat the purpose of having toll lanes. It could clog them up,” Churney said.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com