BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                       



           ------------------------------------------------------------ 
          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                  AB 2067|
          |Office of Senate Floor Analyses   |                         |
          |1020 N Street, Suite 524          |                         |
          |(916) 651-1520         Fax: (916) |                         |
          |327-4478                          |                         |
           ------------------------------------------------------------ 
           
                                         
                                 THIRD READING


          Bill No:  AB 2067
          Author:   Lowenthal (D)
          Amended:  6/23/10 in Senate
          Vote:     21

           
           SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMM :  8-0, 6/15/10
          AYES:  Lowenthal, Huff, Ashburn, DeSaulnier, Harman, Kehoe,  
            Pavley, Simitian
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Oropeza

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  73-0, 4/12/10 - See last page for vote


           SUBJECT  :    Vehicles:  parking

           SOURCE  :     City of Long Beach


           DIGEST  :    This bill allows the City of Long Beach, under  
          specified conditions, to implement a three-year pilot  
          program to permit parking on the left side of two-way local  
          residential streets that dead-end with no cul-de-sac or  
          other designated turnaround area.

           ANALYSIS  :    Under current law, drivers must generally park  
          their vehicles in the same direction as the flow of traffic  
          (i.e., on the right side of two-way roadways and on either  
          side of one-way roadways).  The premise for this  
          requirement is that it helps to avoid head-on collisions  
          with oncoming traffic that would be risked when entering or  
          exiting parking spaces that face the flow of traffic.  

                                                           CONTINUED





                                                               AB 2067
                                                                Page  
          2

          Under current law, a driver may back a vehicle onto a  
          street or highway only when such a movement can be made  
          with reasonable safety.

          This bill:

          1.Allows the City of Long Beach, by ordinance or  
            resolution, to implement a three-year pilot program to  
            authorize drivers to park vehicles on the left-hand side  
            of residential streets that dead-end with no cul-de-sac  
            or other designated turnaround area, if the city or  
            county makes a finding supported by a professional  
            engineering study that the ordinance or resolution is  
            justified by the need to facilitate the safe and orderly  
            movement of vehicles.  

          2.Limits the pilot program to streets perpendicular to  
            Ocean Boulevard beginning at Balboa Place and ending at  
            72nd Place, with the exclusion of 62nd Place.  The  
            ordinance or resolution does not apply until the city  
            erects proper signage, and the city must report to the  
            Legislature no later than two years after enactment of  
            the ordinance or resolution on the advantages and  
            disadvantages of the pilot program.  

          3.Sunsets the pilot program three years from the date of  
            enactment of the ordinance or resolution establishing the  
            pilot program.
           
          Comments
           
          The issue raised by this bill is not left-side parking on  
          dead-end streets but the fact that drivers who do not turn  
          around on the side streets are forced to back into the  
          adjacent arterial.  In the case of the Peninsula, this  
          means backing into four-lane Ocean Boulevard.  Moreover,  
          because Ocean Boulevard itself dead-ends at the end of the  
          Peninsula, residents entering Ocean Boulevard from the  
          south must either back across two-lanes of eastbound  
          traffic to access the westbound lanes that lead into town  
          and to all other destinations or back into the adjacent  
          eastbound lanes and make a U-turn to head west.  

          The author points out that Peninsula residents have been  







                                                               AB 2067
                                                                Page  
          3

          backing into the immediately adjacent lanes and making  
          later U-turns for some time without any significant  
          negative safety impacts being observed and that neither the  
          Long Beach Police nor the city's traffic engineer foresees  
          any detrimental impacts from the continued practice.   
          Nonetheless, it is this concern that prompted the author to  
          include language requiring the city to make a finding  
          supported by a professional engineering study that  
          left-side parking is justified by the need to facilitate  
          the safe and orderly movement of vehicles, to require a  
          report, and to sunset the city's authority.  Presumably,  
          the city would still ticket drivers who back across two  
          lanes of traffic to reach the westbound lanes.

           Prior Legislation  

          In 2009, the author introduced AB 213, which was an almost  
          identical bill that was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.   
          The veto message stated:

               This bill addresses parking concerns affecting a few  
               small streets in one city and can be handled at the  
               local level without a change to state statutes.
           
           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  No   Fiscal Com.:  No    
          Local:  No

           SUPPORT  :   (Verified  6/22/10)

          City of Long Beach (source) 
          California Public Parking Association

           OPPOSITION  :    (Verified  6/22/10)

          California Highway Patrol

           ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT  :    According to the author's office,  
          the Peninsula area of Long Beach has a significant number  
          of narrow, parking impacted, dead-end streets with no  
          cul-de-sacs.  It is very difficult for drivers to turn  
          around on these streets, and when they do, the likelihood  
          of a fender bender accident is great.  As a result,  
          residents and visitors have long parked their vehicles  
          facing the wrong direction on the street, in violation of  







                                                               AB 2067
                                                                Page  
          4

          the Vehicle Code.  The city has issued parking citations  
          for these offenses, frustrating residents who believe it is  
          safer to park facing the wrong direction than to turn  
          around.  This bill allows Long Beach to permit left-side  
          parking on specified streets provided that it facilitates  
          the safe and orderly movement of vehicles.

           ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION  :    The California Highway Patrol  
          (CHP) believes that parking concerns affecting a few small  
          streets in selected communities should be handled at the  
          local level without a change to state statutes.  As an  
          alternative, CHP encourages the City of Long Beach to  
          provide additional space for vehicles to turn around on its  
          one-way streets by implementing a parking permit system or  
          limiting parking to one side of the street.   
           

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  
          AYES:  Adams, Ammiano, Arambula, Bass, Beall, Bill  
            Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield,  
            Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles  
            Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De  
            La Torre, De Leon, DeVore, Emmerson, Eng, Feuer,  
            Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines,  
            Galgiani, Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman, Hayashi, Hernandez,  
            Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lieu,  
            Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning,  
            Nava, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, Norby, V. Manuel Perez,  
            Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva, Skinner,  
            Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torres, Torrico,  
            Tran, Villines, Yamada, John A. Perez
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Anderson, Evans, Hall, Harkey, Smyth,  
            Torlakson 


          JA:nl  6/22/10   Senate Floor Analyses 

                         SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

                                ****  END  ****