BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 516
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Date of Hearing: July 8, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
SB 516
(Fuller) - As Amended July 1, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill provides additional discretion to Service Authorities
for Freeway Emergencies (SAFEs) for use of revenue from the $1
vehicle registration surcharge in order to fund other elements
of a motorist aid system, in addition to call boxes.
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Specifically, this bill:
1)Deletes the requirement that SAFEs may use surcharge revenues
for other than call boxes only if there using excess revenues
above the amount needed for full implementation and ongoing
operation and maintenance of the call box system.
2)Allows SAFEs discretion to allocate all surcharge revenues for
specified motorist aid and safety-related projects, including
changeable message signs, lighting for call boxes, supporting
traffic operations centers, contracting to remove disable
vehicles from rights-of-way, traveler information systems,
other transportation demand management services, and
safety-related hazard and obstruction removal.
3)Stipulates that any surcharge funding for changeable message
signs, traveler information systems, and safety-related hazard
and obstruction removal are to supplement, and not supplant,
Caltrans expenditures for similar services on the state's
freeways.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Negligible state fiscal impact.
COMMENTS:
Background and Purpose. SAFEs programs were first authorized in
1985 to fund and implement a motorist aid system of call boxes,
which provide a motorist with a direct communication link to the
CHP in the event of a mechanical breakdown, flat tire, traffic
accident, or other incident. According to Caltrans, 29 of the
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state's 58 counties have call box programs. These range from
Los Angeles County, with more than 4,000 call boxes, to Humboldt
and Del Norte counties, where only a few call boxes have been
installed in particularly isolated areas.
Call box usage peaked around 1996 and has steadily declined
since, due primarily to the proliferation of cell phones. For
example, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC)
reports that in 1996, over 216,000 calls were made on a network
of over 3,000 call boxes in the nine-county MTC region. Those
numbers declined to less than 13,000 calls made on a network of
1,600 call boxes in 2014.
SB 516 authorizes SAFEs to provide other motorist aid systems.
The expanded list of allowable expenditures provided in the bill
will allow SAFEs to use newer technology, such as phone- and
Web-based 511 traveler information systems. SAFEs have long
been able to use their funds for some of these other components,
but only if they had revenue in excess of that needed to fully
build out and operate a call box system. SB 516 gives SAFEs
flexibility to design and implement whatever motorist aid system
will work best in their county.
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
SB 516
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