BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 1669
                                                                  Page  1


          ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
          AB 1669 (Wagner)
          As Amended  April 1, 2014
          Majority vote 

           TRANSPORTATION      15-0                                        
           
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Ayes:|Lowenthal, Linder,        |     |                          |
          |     |Achadjian, Ammiano,       |     |                          |
          |     |Bloom, Bonta, Buchanan,   |     |                          |
          |     |Daly, Frazier, Gatto,     |     |                          |
          |     |Holden, Wagner, Nazarian, |     |                          |
          |     |Patterson,                |     |                          |
          |     |Quirk-Silva               |     |                          |
          |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
          |     |                          |     |                          |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
           SUMMARY  :  Authorizes Orange County, when conducting an  
          engineering and traffic survey within the unincorporated  
          community of Orange Park Acres, to consider equestrian safety.   
          Specifically,  this bill  : 

          1)Authorizes Orange County, when conducting an engineering and  
            traffic survey within the unincorporated community of Orange  
            Park Acres, to consider equestrian safety in addition to the  
            other factors specified in law.  

          2)Makes findings related to the necessity of a special law due  
            to unique circumstances applicable only to the unincorporated  
            community of Orange Park Acres and its equestrian trails.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  None

           COMMENTS  :  Existing law requires the California Department of  
          Transportation (Caltrans), after consultation with local  
          agencies and public hearings, to adopt rules and regulations  
          that prescribe uniform standards and specifications for traffic  
          control devices, including the posting of speed limits. Caltrans  
          adopts these rules as the California Manual on Uniform Traffic  
          Control Devices (the California MUTCD), which, among other  
          things, prescribes the process for setting speed limits in this  
          state.  









                                                                  AB 1669
                                                                  Page  2


          In California and elsewhere, speed limits are generally set in  
          accordance with engineering and traffic surveys, which measure  
          prevailing vehicular speeds and establish the limit at or near  
          the 85th percentile (i.e., the speed that 15% of motorists  
          exceed).  California uses the 85th percentile to set speed  
          limits except in cases where the limit is set in state law, such  
          as the 25 miles per hour (MPH) limit in residence districts and  
          school zones, or where an engineering and traffic survey shows  
          that other safety-related factors suggest that a lower speed  
          limit is warranted.  These safety-related factors, as prescribed  
          by law, include:  accident data; highway, traffic, and roadway  
          conditions not readily apparent to the driver; residential  
          density; and pedestrian and bicyclist safety.  Based on any of  
          these safety-related factors, Caltrans regulations allow a local  
          jurisdiction to reduce a speed limit by 5 MPH from the 85th  
          percentile.  

          In cases where the 85th percentile speed is not an increment of  
          5 MPH, the California MUTCD directs a jurisdiction to round to  
          the nearest 5 MPH increment.  Thus, if the survey shows an 85th  
          percentile speed of 32 MPH, the jurisdiction must set the speed  
          limit at 30 MPH.  The jurisdiction may then lower the speed  
          limit to 25 MPH if it identifies and documents a safety-related  
          factor.  The jurisdiction cannot lower the speed limit by more  
          than 5 MPH, regardless of additional safety factors.  In  
          instances where the jurisdiction should round up to reach the  
          nearest 5 MPH, the MUTCD allows the jurisdiction to instead  
          round down, but then the jurisdiction may not reduce the posted  
          speed limit by 5 MPH based on a safety-related factor.  

          This bill would allow Orange County, when conducting an  
          engineering and traffic study within the community of Orange  
          Park Acres, to consider equestrian safety.  Orange Park is an  
          unincorporated community in Orange County that has an extensive  
          network of equestrian trails. Residents frequently travel  
          through the community by horse, often traversing the same roads  
          as vehicles.  The community would like the county to consider  
          the safety of equestrian users in determining speed limits on  
          public roads within the community, but the county is currently  
          limited to considering only the safety-related issues listed in  
          statute.  

           Prior Legislation  :  AB 2402 (Rod Pacheco), Chapter 186, Statutes  
          of 2002, authorized the City of Norco, when conducting an  








                                                                  AB 1669
                                                                  Page  3


          engineering and traffic survey, to consider equestrian safety in  
          addition to other factors required by law.   
           
           
          Analysis Prepared by  :    Anya Lawler / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093 


                                                                FN: 0003107