BILL ANALYSIS
SJR 6
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SENATE THIRD READING
SJR 6 (Alan Lowenthal)
As Amended April 30, 2009
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :36-0
TRANSPORTATION 14-0
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|Ayes:|Eng, Jeffries, | | |
| |Blumenfield, Monning, | | |
| |Conway, Furutani, | | |
| |Galgiani, | | |
| |Bill Berryhill, Bonnie | | |
| |Lowenthal, Miller, | | |
| |Niello, John A.Perez, | | |
| |Solorio, Torlakson | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Urges the United States (U.S.) Congress to pass, and
the President to sign, HR 734, the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement
Act, which directs the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)
to conduct research and develop minimum noise standards for new
motor vehicles. Specifically, this bill :
1)States that 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 that operate,
or are likely to operate, with virtually no sound being
produced by the vehicle.
2)States that 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.
3)States that blind pedestrians cannot locate and evaluate
traffic by sight and instead must listen to traffic to discern
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its speed, direction, and other attributes in order to travel
safely and independently.
4)States that 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.
5)Declares that 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.
6)References SB 1174 (Alan Lowenthal) of 2008, that 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.
7)States that SB 1174 was vetoed based not on a failure to
recognize the severity of the problem, but rather the belief
that federal funding for this research was available.
8)Notes that 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.
9)States that the U.S. Congress is considering the Pedestrian
Safety Enhancement Act, HR 734, which would direct the USDOT
to conduct the appropriate research and develop minimum noise
standards for new motor vehicles.
EXISTING LAW : The CEC serves as the state's primary energy
policy and planning agency, including policy and planning
related to transportation fuels and vehicle technologies.
Since 1996, CEC has administered the Public Interest Energy
Research (PIER) program, which supports research, development,
and demonstration projects to improve the quality of life in
California by bringing environmentally safe, affordable, and
reliable energy services and products to the marketplace. The
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program also undertakes transportation research intended to
accelerate the development, availability, and use of alternative
fuels, advanced vehicle technologies, and advanced
transportation systems and strategies. The PIER program
annually awards up to $62 million to conduct the research in
partnership with public or private research institutions.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : The author introduced this Senate Joint Resolution
(SJR) at the request of the California Council of the Blind
(Council) to address the need for research on quiet cars
vehicles that emit limited sound when they are idling or moving
at slow speeds since they are powered by electric motors.
Commonly, hybrid cars engines do not idle and therefore make no
sound at all. When a hybrid comes to a full stop at a red light
or stop sign, the engine is completely shut off. A blind
traveler has no indication that a car is present and preparing
to move forward at any moment.
In 2007, Americans purchased over 350,000 new hybrid vehicles
and the California Department of Motor Vehicles reports that
there are currently 223,700 hybrid vehicles registered in
California. With these numbers, and the increasing popularity
of gas-electric hybrid vehicles, the Council believes that it is
imperative that strategies be undertaken to address the
pedestrian safety issues associated with these vehicles.
At the state level, the CEC indicates that it is currently
considering research on quiet cars under its PIER transportation
research program, in part due to inquiries by the sponsor and
author. CEC staff reports also that the topic of quiet cars is
attracting attention due to both the increasing demand for
gas-electric hybrids and the development of plug-in hybrid
vehicles, which have a greater all-electric, and therefore
quiet, range because they have an electric motor that runs on a
rechargeable battery.
Nationally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) is responding to this issue by investigating the hazard
of quieter vehicles to pedestrians, cyclists and others who need
to be aware of approaching cars that are out of their line of
sight. Since August 2007, NHTSA has been working through the
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Society of Automotive Engineers International (SAE) to identify
effective ways to address the safety issue with quieter
vehicles.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of
International Automobile Manufacturers and SAE have formed the
Vehicle Sound for Pedestrians Subcommittee under the SAE Safety
and Human Factors Committee. This subcommittee, Vehicle Sounds
for Pedestrians (VSP) is currently working to both define the
issue and understand the conditions in which these types of
incidents occur and expects to propose and evaluate different
methods to address the issues as these factors are better
understood.
On May 30, 2008, the NHTSA provided notice of meeting and
information on quiet cars in the Federal Register (Volume 73,
Number 105). The notice's intent is to bring together
government policymakers, stakeholders from the blind community,
industry representatives and public interest groups to discuss
the safety of blind pedestrians encountering quiet cars
including hybrids, all-electric vehicles and quiet internal
combustion engine vehicles. Written comments were to be
submitted and received to NHTSA no later than August 1, 2008.
Additionally, last year, the U.S. House of Representatives
introduced House Resolution (HR) 5734, the "Pedestrian Safety
Enhancement Act of 2008" which would have required the Secretary
of Transportation to study and establish a motor vehicle safety
standard to alert blind and other pedestrians of motor vehicle
operation. HR 5734 was referred to the Subcommittee on
Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection but was not heard and
the bill died.
Subsequently, HR734, the "Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of
2009" was introduced on January 28, 2009 and referred to the
House Committee on Energy and Commerce. HR 734 is an identical
measure to the legislation from the previous year. SJR 6 would
urge the U.S. federal government to support passage of HR 734.
Previous legislation : SB 1174 (Lowenthal) of 2008, would have
directed the California Energy Resources Conservation and
Development Commission to convene a Quiet Motorized Vehicle and
Safe Mobility Committee to investigate strategies to increase
pedestrian safety around electric and other quiet vehicles. SB
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1174 was vetoed by the Governor. In the veto message, the
Governor states that although he "recognizes the challenges that
the blind and visually impaired must overcome when interacting
with the motoring public, this bill attempts to solve a national
traffic safety problem though the California Energy Commission."
Subsequently, "there is value in creating conforming standards
throughout the nation, thus this issue should be handled at the
federal level."
Analysis Prepared by : Alejandro Esparza / TRANS. / (916)
319-2093
FN: 0001515