BILL ANALYSIS
SB 734
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Date of Hearing: June 29, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Mike Eng, Chair
SB 734 (Lowenthal) - As Amended: June 22, 2009
SENATE VOTE : 36-0
SUBJECT : Transportation technical cleanup bill
SUMMARY : Enacts various cleanup and technical modifications to
existing transportation-related statutes. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Clarifies that any interest earned on the investment of funds
from the Local Streets and Road Improvement, Congestion
Relief, and Traffic Safety Account, as established by
Proposition 1B of 2006, must be used for transportation
facilities.
2)Repeals an obsolete deadline for adopting State Transportation
Improvement Program (STIP) guidelines.
3)Repeals redundant statutory language that appears in various
code sections regarding violations of disabled parking
restrictions.
4)Adjusts weight thresholds related to emissions inspections of
diesel-powered vehicles in order to correspond to weight
classification data maintained by the Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV).
5)Corrects an erroneous statutory reference to the High Polluter
Repair or Removal Account.
6)Conforms the Public Utilities Code to the Government Code
regarding the time by which transit operators must file annual
reports with the Controller's office under Proposition 1B.
7)Establishes statutory definitions of "bicycle path" and
"bicycle path crossing" to clarify the types of facilities
that bicycles are permitted to use.
8)Removes obsolete language in a statutory provision regarding
driving violation points.
SB 734
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9)Clarifies that state law does not prohibit bicycles from
operating on sidewalks and crosswalks, where permitted by
local ordinance.
10) Clarifies that a driver's obligation to stop at an
intersection which has traffic signals that are inoperative
applies regardless of the reason that the signals are
inoperative.
11) Adds a missing cross-reference in the statute prohibiting a
person from parking in a space designated for a disabled
person to the statute requiring state agencies to provide one
parking space for disabled person for every 25 parking spaces
it provides.
12) Clarifies the time period during which a person may request
an initial review of a parking violation notice.
13) Requires an agency that issues parking citations to provide
notice of the availability of penalty waivers prior to
receiving a request for an administrative hearing appealing
the citation.
EXISTING LAW : Establishes various statutory provisions
regarding transportation-related issues.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. This bill was withdrawn from the
Senate Appropriations Committee pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8.
COMMENTS : This is the Senate Transportation and Housing
Committee's annual technical cleanup bill. It combines a number
of technical, clarifying provisions dealing with a variety of
transportation-related topics. Each of the provisions is
noncontroversial, having no opposition. A number of them
appeared in bills (AB 3064 - Assembly Transportation Committee
and SB 432 - Lowenthal) that were vetoed last year by the
Governor with boilerplate language blaming the vetoes on his
lack of time and interest due to the lateness of the 2008 Budget
Act adoption.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
SB 734
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California Bicycle Coalition
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093