BILL ANALYSIS Ó
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2707|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2707
Author: Chau (D), et al.
Amended: 5/22/14 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 10-0, 6/10/14
AYES: DeSaulnier, Gaines, Cannella, Galgiani, Hueso, Lara, Liu,
Pavley, Roth, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Beall
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 74-0, 5/1/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Bus length limitations: bicycle racks
SOURCE : Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation
Authority
DIGEST : This bill allows transit providers to install larger
bike racks on buses that are 40 feet long or shorter.
ANALYSIS : Existing law limits the length of a bus to 45 feet.
A public transit operator may equip its buses of any length
with bike racks that extend up to 36 inches out from the front
of its buses and which may be loaded such that the bike handle
bars extend up to 42 inches in front of the bus. In no case,
however, can the total length of the bus, the bike rack, and
bikes total a length greater than 48.5 feet.
Existing law permits the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District
(AC Transit), the Gold Coast Transit District, and the
CONTINUED
AB 2707
Page
2
Sacramento Regional Transit District (RT) to install on their
buses bike racks that extend up to 40 inches in front of the bus
(i.e., an additional four inches), provided that the handlebars
of the bikes loaded extend no more than 46 inches.
These districts must report to the Assembly Transportation
Committee and this committee on any traffic incidents or
accidents where the size of the bike rack was a factor, as well
as a summary of the mobility improvements the bike racks
provided. AC Transit's report is due on December 31, 2014; Gold
Coast's report is due on December 31, 2017; and RT's report is
due December 31, 2018.
This bill permits any public transit operator to equip its buses
of up to 40 feet in length with bike racks that extend up to 40
(rather than 36) inches out from the front of its buses and
which may be loaded such that the bike handle bars extend up to
46 (rather than 42) inches in front of the bus.
Comments
Route review committees . Existing law requires that in order
for a transit agency to operate its 45-foot buses with bike
racks (but not buses less than 45 feet), it must establish a
route review committee. The route review committee conducts a
field review of routes where these buses would travel and
consults traffic engineers from public agencies with
jurisdiction over roads that the bus routes follow. Only when a
route review committee by unanimous vote determines that 45-foot
buses with 36-inch front bike racks can operate safely on the
selected routes may the public transit agency then operate such
buses on those routes. The route review committee is comprised
of:
A representative of the transit agency appointed by the
general manager of that agency;
A traffic engineer from the public agency that has
jurisdiction over the largest proportion of the transit
agency's bus routes; and
A representative of the bus drivers chosen by the labor
organization representing the bus drivers.
CONTINUED
AB 2707
Page
3
This bill applies only to buses of up to 40 feet in length and
so does not invoke this statutory route review committee. The
three pilot projects require enhanced route review committees
for 45-foot buses in those transit districts.
Prior Legislation
AB 652 (Skinner, Chapter 369, Statutes of 2009) gave AC Transit
authority to install 40-inch bike racks on its buses, including
on its 45-foot buses, but only pursuant to a vote of a route
review committee. AC Transit reports that it never installed
racks on any of its 45-foot buses but has installed 40-inch
racks on about 50 of its 40-foot buses. It is tracking
incidents and will be prepared to report on the racks on
schedule this year.
AB 2488 (Williams, Chapter 376, Statutes of 2012) gave the same
authority to Gold Coast Transit in Ventura County as AB 652 had
given to AC Transit. Last spring, Gold Coast Transit installed
three larger bike racks on its buses, but none on 45-foot buses
as it only owns 35- and 40-foot buses.
AB 206 (Dickinson, Chapter 95, Statutes of 2013) provides a
third transit district with the authority to install 40-inch
bike racks on its buses. RT has yet to install larger bike
racks on its buses, but plans to do so on some of its 40-foot
buses in the near future.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/12/14)
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
(source)
California Association of Bicycling Organizations
California Transit Association
Napa County Transportation Planning Agency
North County Transit District
San Mateo County Transit District
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
Santa Monica Big Blue Bus
OPPOSITION : (Verified 6/12/14)
CONTINUED
AB 2707
Page
4
United Transportation Union
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author, ridership on
public transportation is increasing throughout the country,
pointing to the nearly 10.7 billion trips riders took in the
U.S. last year on buses, trains, and subways. This constituted
the highest total since 1956. Proponents assert that transit
riders are increasingly using bicycles to access transit and the
use of a rack which can accommodate three bicycles is necessary
to accommodate that growth. Most racks that can hold three
bicycles (rather than just two) measure 40 inches when fully
deployed, exceeding the 36-inch limit established in law.
As previously noted, the Legislature has authorized AC Transit
(2009), Gold Coast Transit (2012), and Sacramento RT (2013) to
equip their buses with triple bike racks without being in
violation of vehicle length limits in state law.
The author states that transit agencies around the state would
like the authority to equip their 40-foot buses with triple bike
racks to accommodate the growing number of transit riders using
bicycles to access public transit. This bill gives transit
agencies statewide the authority they need to install these
triple bike racks on their 40-foot buses to meet the growing
demand among transit users.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The United Transportation Union
(UTU) opposes this bill because it does not include a route
review committee to approve use of these larger bike racks on
40-foot buses. Calling this omission a fatal flaw in the bill,
UTU notes that only once a local route review committee has
surveyed a route and deemed a bus with a larger bike rack route
safe over it should buses so outfitted be able to operate on the
route.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 74-0, 5/1/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Buchanan, Ian Calderon,
Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Dababneh,
Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier,
Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell,
Gray, Grove, Hagman, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones,
CONTINUED
AB 2707
Page
5
Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein,
Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande,
Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva,
Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Skinner, Stone, Ting,
Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada,
John A. Pérez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Brown, Hall, Mansoor, Patterson, Salas,
Vacancy
JA:nl 6/12/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
**** END ****
CONTINUED