Thinking Outside the Coffin Steve Heminger Executive Director Bay Area Toll Authority IBTTA Transportation Improvement Forum March 2006

1.Revenue: Requiem for the Gas Tax?

Fuel Efficiency Stalls Out Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2004

Far Higher Gasoline Prices Abroad Source: International Energy Agency, April 2005 Gasoline Prices for Selected Countries, 2005

“Read my Lips: No New Taxes” — George H. W. Bush, 1998

The Gas Tax Vanishing Act  No federal rate increase since 1993  Less than 1 / 3 of states have raised the state gas tax since 1993  6 of 15 states with tax hikes were due to automatic indexing

“Pay As You Go” System  Stopped paying — no political will for tax hikes  Stopping going — mounting traffic congestion and repair backlogs

Growing Reliance on Non-User Fees Source: Surface Transportation Policy Project, 2002 Type of Revenue Change Percent Change State Borrowing ($ in millions) 92 $4,316$ 8,298 $3,982 Other Local Taxes Includes Sales Taxes$ 4,487$ 7,079 $ 2, Other State Taxes$ 6,565$ 8,560 $ 1, Local General Funds$ 12,326$ 15,857 $ 3, Local Property Taxes$ 5220$ 6384 $ State User Fees$36,200$42,730 $6,530 18

U.S. History of Toll Roads 1656 First toll bridge — Newbury, Massachusetts 1785 First turnpike — Little River Turnpike, Virginia 1822 President Monroe vetoes bill authorizing collection of tolls from road users 1850 Hundreds of private turnpike companies operate thousands of miles of roads in most states Continued next slide

1920–40’s Major urban toll facilities completed, such as New York’s Holland Tunnel and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge 1940 Pennsylvania Turnpike opens, followed by state toll road authorities in Maine, New Jersey, Ohio, Connecticut and Florida 1956 Congress approves Federal-Aid Highway Act, providing for a fuel tax-based financing mechanism to construct the interstate system U.S. History of Toll Roads (cont’d) Continued next slide

1980 – 1990 States create facility-based toll authorities to supplement interstate highway capacity, such as TCA roads in Orange County, California and E-470 in Denver, Colorado 1991 Congress passes ISTEA legislation which authorizes limited state experimentation with toll-based congestion pricing 1995 – present Metropolitan regions experiment with High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) Lanes in California, Texas, Minnesota, and Colorado. SAFETEA in 2005 expands authority for tolling. U.S. History of Toll Roads (cont’d)

Congestion Tolls ProjectTypeStatus SingaporeCordonOperational 1975 NorwayCordonOperational 1986 LondonCordonOperational 2003 StockholmCordonOperational 2006 Orange County, SR 91HOTOperational 1995 San Diego I-15HOTOperational 1996 Houston Katy FreewayHOTOperational 1998 Minneapolis I-394HOTOperational 2005 Denver I-25HOTPlanned 2006 Seattle Route 167HOTPlanned 2007 Alameda County I-680HOTPlanned 2009

Weight-Distance Truck Tolls ProjectStatus Australian “Austroads” MonitoringPlanning Phase Austrian “GO” Truck TollOperational 2004 Bristol Truck Toll/Cordon TollTrial Project German “Toll Collect” Truck TollOperational 2005 Swiss “HVF” Truck TollOperational 2001 U.K. Truck TollPlanned 2007 Source: Institute of Transportation Studies, UCLA

2.Devolution: Shift and the Shaft?

“It’s our money, and we’re free to spend it any way we please… If you have money you spend it and win.” — Rose Kennedy

A California Chronology  1923 — Local Road Share First state gas tax of 2 cents per gallon enacted, with 1 cent for state highway account and 1 cent for aid to counties; establishes 50/50% precedent.  1927 — Regional Split North/south split enacted, whereby 49% of state highway account capital funds must be spent in southern California and 51% in northern California (current split stands at 60% south, 40% north).  1961 — County Minimums County minimum formula enacted: at least 70% of state highway account capital funds — both federal and state gas taxes — must be spent in each county based on a population/road mile formula.

Transportation 2030: Investment Plan  Most of $118 billion budget are local funding sources

1971 — Regional Agencies as Project Recommenders Regional transportation planning agencies (RTPA’s) created and empowered later that decade to recommend projects for state and federal highway funding, with California Transportation Commission (CTC) exercising ultimate project selection authority — Self-Help Movement Begins First county sales tax passed in Santa Clara; since then 18 other counties have enacted sales taxes tied to specific projects approved by voters — Regional Agencies as Project Selectors “Transportation Blueprint” legislation passed which effectively gives RTPA’s project selection authority over the 70% county minimum funds, but allows the CTC to override choices for projects of statewide significance.

Sales taxes outstrip the STIP  In each of the seven Bay Area counties with a special transportation sales tax in place, the proceeds from this levy exceed the county’s share of funds from the STIP.

Voting Results on Transportation Funding Ballot Measures: Bay Area vs. State

1992 — Suballocation on Steroids State legislature passes ISTEA implementing bill that not only codifies the federal suballocation of STP funds, but takes extra step of suballocating CMAQ funds to RTPA’s in air quality non-attainment and maintenance areas — Amicable Divorce State legislature passes Senate Bill 45 which guarantees that RTPA’s have project selection authority over 75% of state highway account spending; the remaining 25% of funds are programmed by CTC. Regional role is to match transportation funds with local land use decisions. State role is to facilitate travel “to and through” metropolitan areas.

TEA 21 STP and CMAQ Program Bay Area Total = $754 million

TEA 21 STIP Programming Bay Area Total = $1.3* billion * Includes state transportation revenues combined with TEA 21

Bay Area Project Delivery Keeps Pace With Appropriations

Devolution Losers  Rural counties with small tax base and anti-tax ethos  Large “lumpy” projects that don’t neatly fit within county shares  Modes that lack electoral appeal: bikes vs. freight

3.Operations: Can We Breathe New Life into an Old Field?

Transportation Paradigms  Interstate Era  Build Highways  Post-Interstate Era  Build Anything BUT Highways  Post-Post-Interstate Era  Manage What You’ve Built

Cost/Benefit of Operations and Capital Projects Operations Projects Benefit/Cost Ratio (avg.) Freeway Ramp Metering 14 : 1 Incident Response 8 : 1 Arterial Signal Timing 35 : 1 Region-Wide ITS Deployment 9 : 1 Capital Projects New HOV Lanes 2 : 1 New Mixed Flow Lanes 1.2 : 1 Interchange Improvements 1.2 : 1 Auxiliary Lanes 5 : 1 Truck Climbing Lanes 1.3 : 1 Source: MTC, Caltrans, and FHWA

Traffic Congestion Caltrans Budget

Electronic Payment Systems  TransLink ®  Smart Card for Transit Fare Payment  FasTrak ™  Electronic Toll Collection

TransLink ® Smart Card  Deployment Schedule  Mid 2006  AC Transit  Golden Gate Transit  Early 2007  SF Muni  BART

FasTrak ™ Deployment  Golden Gate Bridge and State operated two separate systems prior to  Transponders interoperable on all bridges  Successful launch of new Web site and single customer service center (June 2005)  FasTrak™ in peak period  GG Bridge: 70%  State: 40%

FasTrak TM Accounts

511 Traveler Information  Traffic conditions, transit, ridesharing, bicycle information  Driving times service  Transit Trip Planner  Fastrak™ toll tag readers as data source  511 system well used today  Over 900,000 monthly visits to 511.org  Over 300,000 calls to 511  Over 300,000 uses by ISPs

511 Driving Times Coverage

 MTC Grant Recipients San Francisco Muni, AC Transit, Caltrain/SamTrans, VTA, Golden Gate Transit, WestCat, LAVTA, Emery Go-Round  The program will collect real-time transit arrival predictions from all partner agencies into a central, regional data repository.  The repository will disseminate the information to the 511 phone and web systems, regional signage, and interested transit partners.  Currently, the 511 phone system provides a demo for Muni’s light-rail and historic streetcars. Real Time Transit Information

Work in Progress  Incident Management  especially heavy trucks, haz mat, and fatalities  Ramp Metering  local vs. regional traffic  Pricing  HOT Lanes, parking cash-out, L.A. Pier Pass  VII  both recurrent and incident-related congestion