BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: sb 290 SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: correa VERSION: 2/14/11 Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: yes Hearing date: March 29, 2011 SUBJECT: Neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) DESCRIPTION: This bill extends, from January 1, 2013 until January 1, 2017, the authority of Orange County to establish a neighborhood electric vehicle transportation plan for the Ranch Plan Planned Community. ANALYSIS: Existing law defines a low-speed vehicle as a motor vehicle that is 4-wheeled; can attain a speed of no more than 25 MPH on a paved, level surface; and has a gross vehicle weight rating of less than 3,000 pounds. Low-speed vehicles are also known as neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs). NEVs meet federal motor vehicle safety standards, and one must possess a valid California driver's license to operate a NEV on public streets. Existing law generally prohibits NEVs from being operated on any roadway with a speed limit in excess of 35 MPH, but a number of bills have provided exceptions for several communities to run pilot projects, provided that the following conditions are met: 1)Each local government establishes a "neighborhood electric vehicle transportation plan" for its jurisdiction or some part of it. Existing law puts numerous requirements on the adoption of the plan, including consultation with local law enforcement and transportation planning officials. The plan must accommodate the travel of NEVs by identifying routes and providing for NEV facilities (separate lanes, trails, street crossings, parking, charging stations, etc.), and it may allow NEVs on streets with speed limits over 35 MPH only where dedicated lanes are provided for NEVs. 2)Each jurisdiction works with the California Department of SB 290 (CORREA) Page 2 Transportation (Caltrans) to establish uniform specifications and symbols for signs, traffic control devices, and rights-of-way designation in the plan areas and have Caltrans approval in any instance where a NEV route in the plan will cross or use a state highway. 3)If a jurisdiction adopts a NEV transportation plan, it reports to the Legislature on the plan, its effectiveness, and its impact on traffic flows and safety, and the jurisdiction makes a recommendation to the Legislature on extending the sunset date or expanding the authorization for NEV transportation plans statewide. These reports are due to the Legislature about a year before the jurisdiction's NEV plan authority sunsets. Communities statutorily authorized to adopt NEV plans are: Lincoln and Rocklin . AB 2353 (Leslie), Chapter 422, Statutes of 2004, authorized the NEV transportation plan pilot projects until January 1, 2009, for the cities of Lincoln and Rocklin, and AB 2963 (Gaines), Chapter 199, Statutes of 2008, extended the sunset date on the Lincoln and Rocklin pilot projects until January 1, 2012. Amador County and the cities of Jackson, Sutter Creek, and Amador City . AB 584 (Huber), Chapter 437, Statutes of 2010, allows until 2016, the County of Amador and the cities of Jackson, Amador City, and Sutter Creek to establish a neighborhood electric vehicle transportation plan or plans. Fresno . AB 1781 (Villines), Chapter 452, Statutes of 2010, authorizes until 2016 the City of Fresno to establish a NEV plan. Ranch Plan Planned Community in Orange County . SB 956 (Correa), Chapter 442, Statutes of 2007, authorizes Orange County to establish a NEV transportation plan for Ranch Plan Planned Community under essentially the same criteria as the Lincoln and Rocklin pilot projects, except with a sunset date of January 1, 2013. This bill extends the sunset date on the NEV transportation plan authority in Orange County to January 1, 2017, and requires that the county submit its report to the Legislature by November 1, 2015. SB 290 (CORREA) Page 3 COMMENTS: 1) Purpose . The author notes that his SB 956 authorizing the Ranch Plan Planned Community NEV plan passed in 2007 at the peak of the real estate market. The real estate market subsequently collapsed and new housing starts statewide declined to the lowest numbers on record. The author reports that as a result the Ranch Plan development has just recently begun mass grading and that the current development schedule calls for the first neighborhoods and homes to be built in 2012 with the first residents arriving in early 2013. The developer of Ranch Plan Planned Community, who is the sponsor of this bill and of SB 956 in 2007, remains committed to building a complete system of NEV trails and facilities throughout the new community to provide an environmentally beneficial alternative to automobiles, but an extension in the report and sunset dates is required to do so. The proposed 2015 report and 2017 sunset dates will provide sufficient NEV transportation experience for NEV users, transportation managers, and law enforcement officials to provide meaningful information in a report to the Legislature. The author further notes that the information in this report should differ from some other NEV transportation plans because NEVs in this instance are being incorporated into a new community trail system rather than being added to existing roads and trails. 2) Outstanding public safety issues for NEV Plans . While the Legislature has authorized several jurisdictions to create NEV transportation plans as pilot projects, only the City of Lincoln has actually implemented a plan. Partly because of this limited experience, there are several outstanding public safety issues to be resolved with NEV plans, including: conflicts with bicycles, as noted below; appropriate and universal signage; and the difficulty for a NEV making a left turn on a street with a speed limit in excess of 35 MPH where the NEV must cross traffic in order to move from a dedicated lane on the SB 290 (CORREA) Page 4 right hand side of the roadway. In recognition of these, all of the existing statutory authorizations for NEV plans have sunset dates. This bill includes a 2017 sunset date for the same reason. 3) Conflicts between NEVs and bicycles . Bicycle advocates have expressed concern with NEV plans and opposed some of the bills authorizing them, because the plans can result in NEVs operating in bicycle lanes. Specifically, these advocates note that NEVs are too wide for bike lanes, that NEVs should drive in the same lanes as other motorized vehicles rather than bikes because of the severity of NEV-bike accidents for bicyclists, and that allowing NEVs in bike lanes leads to the incorrect impression that NEVs may travel on bicycle paths that are separate from roadways. To address these concerns, the committee or author may wish to amend this bill to clarify that dedicated NEV lanes may not be for joint use of NEVs and bicycles nor may NEV lanes displace bicycle lanes. RELATED LEGISLATION: AB 61 (Jeffries) authorizes the County of Riverside or a city within that county to adopt a NEV transportation plan and would sunset that authority in 2017. Pending in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on Wednesday, March 23, 2011) SUPPORT: Ranch Mission Viejo (sponsor) OPPOSED: None received.