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 




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            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.
          




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          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 




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               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.