By: Hall S.B. No. 1143
(In the Senate - Filed February 28, 2017; March 7, 2017,
read first time and referred to Committee on Transportation;
May 3, 2017, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 5,
Nays 1; May 3, 2017, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a prohibition on converting high occupancy vehicle
highway lanes to tolled lanes.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 228.201, Transportation Code, is amended
to read as follows:
Sec. 228.201. LIMITATION ON TOLL FACILITY DESIGNATION.
[(a)] The department may not operate a nontolled state highway or
a segment of a nontolled state highway as a toll project, and may
not transfer a highway or segment to another entity for operation as
a toll project, unless:
(1) the commission by order designated the highway or
segment as a toll project before the contract to construct the
highway or segment was awarded;
(2) the project was designated as a toll project in a
plan or program of a metropolitan planning organization on or
before September 1, 2005;
(3) the highway or segment is reconstructed so that
the number of nontolled lanes on the highway or segment is greater
than or equal to the number in existence before the reconstruction;
or
(4) a facility is constructed adjacent to the highway
or segment so that the number of nontolled lanes on the converted
highway or segment and the adjacent facility together is greater
than or equal to the number in existence on the converted highway or
segment before the conversion[; or
[(5) subject to Subsection (b), the highway or segment
was open to traffic as a high-occupancy vehicle lane on May 1,
2005].
[(b) The department may operate or transfer a
high-occupancy vehicle lane under Subsection (a)(5) as a tolled
lane only if the department or other entity operating the lane
allows vehicles occupied by a specified number of passengers to use
the lane without paying a toll.]
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2017.
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