BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  SB 734
                                                                  Page  1


          SENATE THIRD READING
          SB 734 (Alan Lowenthal)
          As Amended  June 22, 2009
          Majority vote 

           SENATE VOTE  :36-0  
           
           TRANSPORTATION      13-0        APPROPRIATIONS      15-0        
           
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Ayes:|Eng, Jeffries, Buchanan,  |Ayes:|De Leon, Nielsen,         |
          |     |Conway, Furutani,         |     |Ammiano,                  |
          |     |Galgiani, Garrick,        |     |Charles Calderon, Coto,   |
          |     |Bonnie Lowenthal, Miller, |     |Davis, Duvall, Fuentes,   |
          |     |Niello,                   |     |Hall, Harkey, Miller,     |
          |     |John A. Perez, Solorio,   |     |John A. Perez, Skinner    |
          |     |Torlakson                 |     |Audra Strickland,         |
          |     |                          |     |Torlakson                 |
          |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
          |     |                          |     |                          |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          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  








                                                                  SB 734
                                                                  Page  2


            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.  

          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  :  According to the Assembly Appropriations  
          Committee analysis, minor reimbursable costs for local agencies  
          to modify the contents of their notifications following an  
          initial review of a parking violation.  All other costs  
          associated with the bill are negligible.  








                                                                  SB 734
                                                                  Page  3



           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.  

           
          Analysis Prepared by  :   Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093 


                                                                FN: 0001983