BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1669 Page 1 CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS AB 1669 (Wagner) As Amended June 17, 2014 Majority vote ----------------------------------------------------------------- |ASSEMBLY: |74-0 |(April 7, 2014) |SENATE: |36-0 |(August 7, | | | | | | |2014) | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Original Committee Reference: TRANS. SUMMARY : Authorizes Orange County, when conducting an engineering and traffic survey within the unincorporated City 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 City 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 City of Orange Park Acres and its equestrian trails. The Senate amendments clarify that Orange Park Acres is a common interest development and that the engineering traffic survey called for in this bill would be conducted on public streets within the common interest development boundary. EXISTING LAW : 1)Requires the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), after consultation with local agencies and public hearings, to adopt rules and regulations prescribing uniform standards and specifications for all official traffic control devices, 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. 2)Requires an engineering and traffic survey to include, among other requirements deemed necessary by Caltrans, consideration of all of the following: AB 1669 Page 2 a) Prevailing speeds as determined by traffic engineering measurements; b) Accident records; and, c) Highway, traffic, and roadside conditions not readily apparent to the driver. 1)Permits local authorities to additionally consider all of the following when conducting an engineering and traffic survey: a) Residential density, if any of the following conditions exist on the particular portion of highway and the property contiguous thereto, other than a business district: i) Upon one side of the highway, within a distance of a quarter of a mile, the contiguous property fronting thereon is occupied by 13 or more separate dwelling houses or business structures; ii) Upon both sides of the highway, collectively, within a distance of a quarter of a mile, the contiguous property fronting thereon is occupied by 16 or more separate dwelling houses or business structures; or, iii) The portion of highway is longer than one-quarter of a mile but has the ratio of separate dwelling houses or business structures to the length of the highway described in either of the above. b) Pedestrian and bicyclist safety. FISCAL EFFECT : None COMMENTS : Existing law requires 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. In California and elsewhere, speed limits are generally set in AB 1669 Page 3 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 Acres 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. Orange Park Acres would like Orange 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 listed in statute. Prior Legislation: AB 2402 (Rod Pacheco), Chapter 186, Statutes of 2002, authorized the City of Norco, when conducting an engineering and traffic survey, to consider equestrian safety in addition to other factors required by law. AB 1669 Page 4 Analysis Prepared by : Anya Lawler / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093 FN: 0004124