BILL NUMBER: AB 162	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Rodriguez

                        JANUARY 21, 2015

   An act to add and repeal Section 21651.1 of the Vehicle Code,
relating to state highways.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 162, as introduced, Rodriguez. State highways: wrong-way
driving.
   Existing law requires a vehicle to be driven on the right half of
a roadway, subject to specified exceptions. On a highway that has
been divided into 2 or more roadways by means of intermittent
barriers or by means of specified kinds of dividing sections,
existing law makes it unlawful to drive a vehicle on that highway,
except to the right of the intermittent barrier or dividing section
that separates 2 or more opposing lanes of traffic.
   This bill would require the Department of Transportation, in
consultation with the Department of Motor Vehicles, to initiate a
12-month study on wrong-way driving on state highways. The bill would
require the study to incorporate findings and recommendations to the
appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislation,
including solutions to reduce the number of instances of wrong-way
driving and a proposed schedule for implementation of those
solutions. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
   The bill would provide that its provisions are repealed as of
January 1, 2021.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) Wrong-way driving on state highways kills or injures hundreds
of Californians each year.
   (b) Accidents caused by wrong-way driving on highways are more
likely to result in fatal and serious injuries than other types of
accidents.
   (c) From 2003 to 2012, drivers traveling the wrong way caused 436
fatal collisions and 5,006 injury collisions in California, as
reported by the Department of the California Highway Patrol.
   (d) Innovative countermeasures are needed to prevent drivers from
entering the highway the wrong way.
  SEC. 2.  Section 21651.1 is added to the Vehicle Code, to read:
   21651.1.  (a) The Department of Transportation, in consultation
with the Department of Motor Vehicles, shall initiate a 12-month
study on wrong-way driving on state highways and shall provide, on or
before January 1, 2017, its recommendations to the appropriate
policy and fiscal committees of the Senate and the Assembly. The
study shall incorporate findings and any other information that the
Department of Transportation deems helpful. The study shall include
proposed solutions to reduce the number of instances of wrong-way
driving on state highways and a proposed schedule for implementing
those solutions.
   (b) This section is repealed on January 1, 2021, pursuant to
Section 10231.5 of the Government Code.