BILL NUMBER: AB 529 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 24, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Gatto
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Smyth)
FEBRUARY 15, 2011
An act to amend Section 21400 of , and to add Section
22358.6 to, the Vehicle Code, relating to vehicles.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 529, as amended, Gatto. Vehicles: speed limits: pilot
project. downward speed zoning.
(1) Existing
Existing law requires the Department of Transportation,
after consultation with local agencies and public hearings, to adopt
rules and regulations prescribing uniform standards and
specifications for all official traffic control devices and
setting of speed limits . Existing law makes it a
crime for a driver to fail to obey a sign or signal, defined as
regulatory in the federal California
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (Manual) , or a
Department of Transportation approved supplement to that manual.
This bill would require the Department of Transportation to revise
the California Manual on Uniform Traffic
Control Devices , as it read on January 1, 2012,
with regard to the posting of the speed limit and would prohibit the
department from revising certain provisions of the California Manual
on Uniform Traffic Control Devices that allow a local agency to
reduce speed limits by an additional 5 miles per hour, under the
circumstances specified in that manual to allow a
local authority to round speed limits down to within 10 kilometers
per hour or 5 miles per hour of the 85th-percentile speed of
free-flowing traffic in cases in which the
speed would otherwise be rounded up, except that in those cases the
local authority would be prohibited from petitioning
the department to reduce the speed limit by an additional 10
kilometers per hour or 5 miles per hour .
(2) Existing law allows a local authority, by ordinance, to
determine and declare a prima facie speed limit, upon the basis of an
engineering and traffic survey, on any portion of any street other
than a state highway, under certain conditions.
This bill would allow, as a pilot project, the City of Glendale
to enact an ordinance to set a speed limit on any major roadway, as
defined, located in that city if the city council determines there is
a demonstrable public safety concern due to escalating traffic
collision and fatality rates. The bill would require the ordinance to
require the pilot program to terminate 5 years after the effective
date of the ordinance and would require the police department of the
City of Glendale to submit a report to the Legislature on the effect
of local speed limit control on lowering traffic collisions and
fatalities.
The bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to
the necessity of a special statute.
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. Section 21400 of the Vehicle Code is amended to read:
21400. (a) (1) The Department of Transportation shall, after
consultation with local agencies and public hearings, adopt rules and
regulations prescribing uniform standards and specifications for all
official traffic control devices placed pursuant to this code,
including, but not limited to, stop signs, yield right-of-way signs,
speed restriction signs, railroad warning approach signs, street name
signs, lines and markings on the roadway, and stock crossing signs
placed pursuant to Section 21364.
(2) The Department of Transportation shall, after notice and
public hearing, determine and publicize the specifications for
uniform types of warning signs, lights, and devices to be placed upon
a highway by a person engaged in performing work that interferes
with or endangers the safe movement of traffic upon that highway.
(3) Only those signs, lights, and devices as are provided for in
this section shall be placed upon a highway to warn traffic of work
that is being performed on the highway.
(4) Control devices or markings installed upon traffic barriers
on or after January 1, 1984, shall conform to the uniform standards
and specifications required by this section.
(b) The Department of Transportation shall revise the California
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, as it read on January 1,
2012, to require that when a speed limit is to be posted, it
should be allow a local authority to round speed
limits down to within 10 kilometers per hour or 5 miles per
hour of the 85th-percentile speed of free-flowing traffic in
cases in which the speed would otherwise be r ounded up,
except that in those cases the local authority may not petition the
department to reduce the speed limit by an additional 10 kilometers
per hour or 5 miles per hour. If the manual requires the local
authority to round down the speed limit, the local authority may
petition the department for an additional 10-kilometers per hour or 5
miles-per-hour decrease . The Department of
Transportation shall not revise those provisions of the California
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, as it read on January 1,
2012, that allow a local agency to reduce speed limits by an
additional 5 miles per hour, under the circumstances specified in
that manual.
SEC. 2. Section 22358.6 is added to the Vehicle
Code, to read:
22358.6. (a) For purposes of this section, "major roadway"
includes a state highway, as defined in Section 24 of the Streets and
Highways Code, a county highway, as defined in Section 25 of the
Streets and Highways Code, or a highway, as defined in Section 360,
but does not include a freeway, as defined in Section 23.5 of the
Streets and Highways Code.
(b) Notwithstanding Section 22358, the City of Glendale, as a
pilot project, may enact an ordinance to set a speed limit on any
major roadway located in that city if the city council determines
there is a demonstrable public safety concern due to escalating
traffic collisions and fatality rates. The ordinance shall require
this pilot program to terminate five years after the effective date
of the ordinance.
(c) Six months after the termination of the pilot program
specified in subdivision (b), the police department of the City of
Glendale shall submit a report to the Legislature on the effect of
the pilot program's local speed limit controls on lowering traffic
collisions and fatalities.
SEC. 3. Due to the unique circumstances in
which the City of Glendale has experienced increasing speeds on some
of its main arterials, including Glenoaks Blvd, which have caused
safety problems for the city, and the fact that 44 percent of the
city's speed limit signs will be increased due to changes made by the
California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, it is
necessary that, and the Legislature finds and declares that, a
general statute cannot be made applicable within the meaning of
Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution.