BILL NUMBER: SJR 6	ENROLLED
	BILL TEXT

	ADOPTED IN SENATE  MAY 11, 2009
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY  JUNE 25, 2009
	AMENDED IN SENATE  APRIL 30, 2009

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Lowenthal

                        APRIL 1, 2009

   Relative to pedestrian safety.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SJR 6, Lowenthal. Pedestrian safety.
   This measure would urge the United States Congress and the
President to support efforts to conduct appropriate research and
develop minimum noise standards for new motor vehicles.



   WHEREAS, Motor vehicles designed to provide the desirable benefits
of reducing harmful pollutants and operating with greater fuel
efficiency include gasoline-electric hybrid and electric-only
vehicles, and in the foreseeable future may include vehicles powered
by hydrogen fuel cell and other engine designs that rely on fuels and
technologies other than the gasoline-powered internal combustion
engine; and
   WHEREAS, These vehicle engine designs operate or are likely to
operate with virtually no sound being produced by the vehicle; and
   WHEREAS, The total number of hybrid motor vehicles sold per year
in the United States is growing dramatically, and may someday equal
or exceed the number of internal combustion engine motor vehicles on
the nation's roads; and
   WHEREAS, With its large population and its ongoing leadership in
the promotion of fuel efficient motor vehicles, California has a
disproportionately high number of alternative fuel vehicles operating
on its streets; and
   WHEREAS, Blind pedestrians cannot locate and evaluate traffic by
sight and instead must listen to traffic to discern its speed,
direction, and other attributes in order to travel safely and
independently; and
   WHEREAS, Other people, including pedestrians who are not blind,
bicyclists, runners, and small children, benefit from multisensory
information available from vehicle traffic, including the sound of
vehicle engines; and
   WHEREAS, When operating on their electric engines, hybrid vehicles
cannot be heard by blind people and others, rendering those vehicles
dangerous when driving on the street, emerging from driveways,
moving through parking lots, and in other situations where
pedestrians and vehicles come into proximity with each other; and
   WHEREAS, Failure to take immediate action to ensure that blind
pedestrians can hear hybrid and other silent vehicles in all phases
of their operation will inevitably lead to pedestrian injuries and
fatalities; and
   WHEREAS, These accidents are preventable through vehicle designs
which take into account the multisensory nature of traffic detection
and avoidance, and require that vehicles emit a minimum level of
sound designed to alert all pedestrians, especially blind
pedestrians, to the presence of these vehicles; and
   WHEREAS, Senate Bill 1174, which passed in 2008, directed the
California Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission
(CEC) to convene a Quiet Motorized Vehicle and Safe Mobility
Committee to investigate strategies to increase pedestrian safety
around electric and other quiet vehicles; and
   WHEREAS, Senate Bill 1174 required the CEC to convene a committee,
to be comprised of representatives of vehicle manufacturers, the
blind or visually impaired pedestrian community, insurance industry,
vehicle research entities, and law enforcement organizations,
including, but not limited to, the Department of the California
Highway Patrol; and
   WHEREAS, Senate Bill 1174 directed the committee to research,
identify, and make recommendations to the CEC on strategies to ensure
that all motorized road vehicles, regardless of engine type or
configuration, emit sound sufficient to be heard and localized; and
   WHEREAS, Senate Bill 1174, also required the CEC to make
recommendations based on the research conducted that are to include,
but not be limited to, proposed legislation and regulations, needed
research or technology, and funding options for implementing
recommendations recognizing the need for urgent action in this matter
by providing for the funding of collaborative research into
methodologies that would enable pedestrians to hear hybrid vehicles;
and
   WHEREAS, The Governor's veto of Senate Bill 1174 was based not on
a failure to recognize the severity of the problem, but rather the
belief that federal funding for this research was available; and
   WHEREAS, Although recently enacted provisions of federal law
require a report to be prepared by June of this year on this problem,
funding has not yet been made available to conduct the research
necessary to find a uniformly applicable and appropriate solution and
to adopt national standards based upon that research; and
   WHEREAS, The United States Congress is considering the Pedestrian
Safety Enhancement Act, HR 734, which would direct the United States
Department of Transportation to conduct the appropriate research and
develop minimum noise standards for new motor vehicles; now,
therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of
California, jointly, That the California State Legislature urges the
United States Congress and the President to recognize the severity of
the problem and support efforts to conduct appropriate research and
develop minimum noise standards for new motor vehicles; and be it
further
   Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit a copy of this
resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States,
the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of
the United States Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from
California in the Congress of the United States.