BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1250
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 13, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Jim Frazier, Chair
AB 1250
(Bloom) - As Amended March 19, 2015
SUBJECT: Vehicles: buses: gross axle weight
SUMMARY: Exempts transit buses procured through a solicitation
process that was issued before January 1, 2016, from the
statutory weight limit of 20,500 pounds on any one axle of a
bus.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Generally limits the gross weight on any one axle for vehicles
that travel on public streets, roads, and highways (highways)
to 20,000 pounds, but provides that buses of any type may
impose a gross axle weight of up to 20,500 pounds.
2)Under federal law, prohibits California from enforcing a
weight limit of under 24,000 pounds per axle for buses
travelling on the federal Interstate highway system.
3)Exempts transit buses procured through a solicitation process
that was issued before January 1, 2013, from existing
statutory limits on bus weights.
4)Allows, until January 1, 2016, a publicly owned and operated
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transit system or an operator of a transit system under
contract with a publicly owned and operated transit system to
do the following:
a) Replace existing buses that exceed the current weight
limits with a new model of the same or lower weight.
b) Procure and operate a new bus in excess of the current
weight limits in order to incorporate a new fleet class
into its inventory, if the governing board adopts a finding
at a public hearing that the change is necessary to address
a need to serve a new or existing market pursuant to its
most recently adopted short-range transit plan, or to meet
federal, state, or regional statutory or regulatory
requirements.
5)Requires the governing board of a transit system, if it holds
a public hearing to consider procurement of buses in excess of
existing weight limits pursuant to the above provisions, to
provide written notice of the public hearing to those cities
and counties on whose roads the busses would travel, and place
in the public record any comment or concerns it receives
regarding the procurement.
6)Defines "fleet class" to mean a group of transit buses that
have a combination of two or more of the following similar
defining characteristics:
a) Length;
b) Seating capacity;
c) Number of axles;
d) Fuel or power system;
e) Width;
f) Structure; and
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g) Equipment package.
7)Prohibits transit buses from operating on the Interstate
highway system in excess of federal weight limitations.
8)Requires state agencies to take into account vehicle weight
impacts and the ability of vehicle manufacturers and operators
to comply with laws limiting the weight of vehicles when
promulgating regulations.
FISCAL EFFECT: None
COMMENTS: Since 1975, state law has prohibited the gross weight
on any single axle of a transit bus from exceeding 20,500
pounds. Due to numerous state and federal mandates, including
Americans with Disability Act requirements and emissions
reduction equipment, transit buses today often exceed that
weight, especially when carrying a large number of passengers.
According to the sponsor, the California Transit Association
(CTA), as many as half of the transit buses in California
operating at peak commute times may exceed the state weight
limit of 20,500 pounds per axle. However, during non-peak
times, this percentage drops significantly due to lower
ridership loads.
Several years ago, some local police departments began citing
transit buses for violating the weight limit. Merely relying on
the current procedures in state law for overweight vehicles
-paying fines resulting from citations or paying fees and
administering thousands of annual overweight vehicle permits on
a city-by-city basis - would be costly and time consuming for
transit agencies and other local governments statewide.
Moreover, such an approach would continue to ignore the
underlying problem: the Vehicle Code limit was created more
than 35 years ago and simply did not contemplate today's
operating environments or legal and regulatory requirements.
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However, simply increasing the weight limit for transit buses is
not as easy as it might sound because for cities and counties,
more weight equals greater wear and tear on local streets and
roads.
AB 1706 (Eng), Chapter 771, Statutes of 2012, offered a
short-term solution to the bus axle weight issue by exempting
all existing transit buses from the state weight limit. AB 1706
additionally allowed for procurement of new buses exceeding the
weight limit if they were replacing existing overweight buses or
if the transit operator was introducing a new fleet class. The
procurement provisions in AB 1706 were scheduled to sunset at
the end of 2014. AB 1720 (Bloom), Chapter 263, Statutes of
2014, extended the sunset on the procurement provisions to the
end of 2015.
The temporary fix to the bus axle weight issue came about after
stakeholders - including cities, counties, transit agencies, and
representatives from various state departments and agencies -
put considerable effort into finding a permanent solution to the
issue without coming to agreement. Because the bus axle weight
issue is a complicated one that has been a subject of concern
not just in California but nationwide, the federal Transit
Cooperative Research Program (TCRP), an arm of the
Transportation Research Board backed by the National Academy of
Sciences, commissioned a detailed national study on the bus axle
weight issue. The study, which was released in November of
2014, provides the most comprehensive look at the issue to date
but does not provide a clear long-term solution. Rather, it
puts forth 23 different options for addressing the axle weight
issue and concludes: "There is no single operational, design,
technological or regulatory solution that resolves these issues
without some undesirable consequences"
Now that the TCRP study has been released, California
stakeholders have reconvened with the goal of crafting a
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long-term solution to the issue that works for all parties. The
stakeholders are reviewing the 23 options laid out in the study
and weighing the pros and cons of each. The hope is that some
agreement will be reached this year that will settle the axle
weight issue once and for all, an agreement that could
eventually be amended into this bill.
In the meantime, this bill exempts transit busses that were
purchased under the terms of the temporary procurement
provisions from the 20,500-pound per axle weight limit. This
ensures that busses that were purchased legally under the terms
of AB 1706 can continue to operate legally should the old weight
limits snap back into place in 2016 as scheduled under current
law. While that was always the intent of both AB 1706 and AB
1720, that intent is not currently reflected in statute.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
California Transit Association (Sponsor)
Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District
California Association for Coordinated Transportation
Napa County Transportation Planning Agency
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Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Anya Lawler / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093