BILL NUMBER: SB 1174 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 8, 2008
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 16, 2008
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 10, 2008
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 1, 2008
INTRODUCED BY Senator Lowenthal
FEBRUARY 8, 2008
An act to add and repeal Section 25227 of the Public Resources
Code, relating to vehicles.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1174, as amended, Lowenthal. Vehicles: hybrid and electric
vehicles: visually impaired pedestrians.
Existing law requires a vehicle to be equipped with certain
specific equipment to ensure the safe operation of the vehicle.
This bill would require the State Energy Resources Conservation
and Development Commission to convene a Quiet Motorized Road Vehicle
and Safe Mobility Committee comprised of representatives from
specified entities to research, identify, and make recommendations to
the commission on strategies to ensure that all motorized road
vehicles, regardless of engine type or configuration, emit sound
sufficient to be heard and localized by pedestrians who are blind or
visually impaired. The bill would require the committee to
conduct the research in a specified manner, including first
conducting laboratory research to determine the intensity and
spectral characteristics of vehicular sounds, comparing the intensity
and spectral characteristics of noise emissions of different types
of relatively quiet vehicles and the requirements of blind and
visually impaired pedestrians, conducting a synthesis and review of
vehicle detection technologies, conducting focus group research,
developing prototype vehicular sensing systems, and evaluating these
systems.
The commission, on or before January 1, 2010, would be required to
submit a report to the Legislature on the recommendations from the
committee. The commission would be required to implement these
requirements using moneys from non-General Fund revenue sources
, but would be prohibited from using moneys from the Public Interest
Research, Development, and Demonstration Fun d .
The bill would be repealed by its own terms on January 1, 2011.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
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) Technological advances in motor vehicle fuel efficiency have
led to the increased popularity of alternative fuel motorized road
vehicles, such as hybrid and electric vehicles, and quiet roadway and
tire technologies. These new technologies are changing the way
pedestrians, especially the blind and visually impaired, utilize
audible cues to cross streets and move through traffic. The engines
in these vehicles operate with significantly less sound than the
traditional combustion engine, resulting in a reduction of the
warning time that blind or visually impaired pedestrians have to get
across an intersection. This is a threat to the ability of the blind
or visually impaired pedestrians to move with independence and
safety.
(b) When vision, as a means of understanding and interpreting the
environment, is reduced or completely eliminated, hearing takes over
as the main information channel. Those who are blind or visually
impaired have learned to rely on hearing to judge when it is safe to
cross the street. Hearing also helps them verify that they are within
a crosswalk, following a straight pathway, and not veering into a
parking lot or other hazardous vehicular areas.
(c) Traffic is a primary source of auditory information. The
sounds of traffic give the blind or visually impaired pedestrians
information about location, direction, and flow which enables them to
determine when they can safely cross a street. These sounds allow
the blind or visually impaired pedestrians to determine the geometric
shape of an intersection and the presence of approaching vehicles.
When there is silence, it is interpreted as a quiet time to safely
cross an intersection.
(d) Anecdotal reports of pedestrians who are blind or visually
impaired indicate that these environmentally friendly vehicles are
extremely difficult and often impossible to hear.
SEC. 2. Section 25227 is added to the Public Resources Code, to
read:
25227. (a) The commission shall convene a Quiet Motorized Road
Vehicle and Safe Mobility Committee comprised of representatives from
vehicle manufacturers, the blind or visually impaired pedestrian
community, insurance industry, vehicle research entities, and law
enforcement organizations, including, but not limited to, the
Department of the California Highway Patrol. The committee shall
research, identify, and make recommendations to the commission on
strategies to ensure that all motorized road vehicles, regardless of
engine type or configuration, emit sound sufficient to be heard and
localized by pedestrians who are blind or visually impaired.
(b) The committee shall conduct the research required by
subdivision (a) in the following order of priority:
(1) Laboratory research to determine the intensity and spectral
characteristics of vehicular sounds that are required for blind or
visually impaired pedestrians to take both of the following actions:
(A) Accurately align with vehicles.
(B) Accurately judge the speed and distance of approaching
vehicles.
(2) A comparison of the intensity and spectral characteristics of
noise emissions of different types of relatively quiet motorized road
vehicles traveling at different speeds over different surfaces in
wet and dry conditions .
(3) A comparison of the requirements of blind or visually impaired
pedestrians with the visual impairments identified pursuant to
paragraph (1).
(4) A synthesis of vehicle detection technologies that have been
developed for speed detection or vehicular collision avoidance, and a
review of these technologies to determine their feasibility for
development as vehicular sensing systems for blind or visually
impaired pedestrians.
(5) Focus group research to determine the characteristics of a
vehicular sensing system that are necessary from the perspective of
blind or visually impaired pedestrians.
(6) Technological development of prototype vehicular sensing
systems for use by blind or visually impaired pedestrians.
(7) An evaluation of the usefulness of the technologies developed
pursuant to paragraph (6) by persons with visual impairments.
(c) Based on the research conducted pursuant to subdivision (b),
the commission's recommendations shall include, but not be limited
to, proposed legislation and regulations, needed research or
technology, and funding options for implementing the recommendations.
(d) On or before January 1, 2010, the commission shall submit a
report to the Legislature on the recommendations of the Quiet
Motorized Road Vehicle and Safe Mobility Committee.
(e) The commission shall implement the requirements of this
section using moneys from non-General Fund revenue sources , but
shall not use moneys from the Public Interest Research, Development,
and Demonstration Fund .
(f) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2011, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2011, deletes or extends
that date.