BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 491 Page 1 Date of Hearing: August 19, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Jimmy Gomez, Chair SB 491 (Committee on Transportation and Housing) - As Amended June 29, 2015 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Transportation |Vote:|16 - 0 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable: No SUMMARY: This omnibus bill makes numerous changes to provisions of law regarding transportation, including: SB 491 Page 2 1)Removing the requirement for Caltrans to report the delivery date of the construction phase of a project as erroneously required by SB 486 (DeSaulnier), Chapter 917, Statutes of 2014. 2)Prohibiting the wearing of earbuds or headsets covering, resting on, or inserted in both ears when operating a motor vehicle or bicycle. 3)Restoring the California Transportation Commission's (CTC's) authority to relinquish segments of State Routes (SR) 92, 185, and 238 to the City of Hayward, if Caltrans and the City reach an agreement. These provisions are identical to the provisions of prior legislation granting CTC relinquishment authority for these route segments [AB 1386 (Hayashi), Chapter 291, Statutes of 2009], which were inadvertently removed by the 2012 Transportation Omnibus Bill, [AB 2679 (Committee on Transportation), Chapter 769, Statutes of 2012.] 4)Making technical corrections to statutory provisions pertaining to prior relinquishments to ensure the statutes accurately reflect the statutory provisions authorizing those relinquishments. 5)Making the Vehicle Code consistent with the principally at fault accident determinations under the Insurance Regulations by increasing the threshold for reporting an accident with property damage to the DMV from $750 to $1,000. 6)Making numerous other technical and clarifying changes. SB 491 Page 3 FISCAL EFFECT: Negligible fiscal impact. COMMENTS: Purpose. The Assembly Transportation Committee and the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee (Committees) traditionally author an annual transportation omnibus bill, combining various statutory modifications that are technical in nature, non-controversial, and have no opposition into a single bill. Suggestions for omnibus provisions are solicited from a broad range of stakeholders. The Committees insist that the transportation omnibus bill be a consensus measure, therefore, if there is opposition to an item, it must be removed. There is no known opposition to any item in this bill. Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081