BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 607
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: Brownley
VERSION: 4/13/11
Analysis by: Art Bauer FISCAL: no
Hearing date: June 7, 2011
SUBJECT:
Illuminated signs on public transit buses
DESCRIPTION:
This bill authorizes the City of Santa Monica's bus transit
system to establish a demonstration program to equip the sides
of its buses with electronic signs displaying advertising.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1. Authorizes buses, operated by a publicly-owned transit
system on regularly scheduled service, to be equipped with
illuminated head signs that include destination,
route-number, run-number, or a combination. These signs
may emit any light color, other than the color red, from
forward-facing signs consistent with the following
conditions:
Signs must emit diffused non-glaring light.
The area of the signs may be no greater than 720
square inches.
Signs shall be installed in a position that does
not interfere with the visibility or effectiveness of a
required lamp, reflector, or other device on the bus.
Signs shall display information directly related
to public transit service, including, but not limited
to, route number, destination description, and run
number.
1. Authorizes dynamic messaging on all illuminated signs if
the practice adheres to the following requirements:
AB 607 (BROWNLEY) Page 2
"Paging," meaning information presented for a
period of time and then disappearing all at once before
new information is presented, is permitted if the
display time of each message is between 2.7 and 10
seconds. Blanking time between each message is must be
between 0.5 and 25 seconds.
"Streaming," meaning information moving
continuously and smoothly across the display, is
permitted if the character movement time, from one end
of the display to the other, is at least 2.7 seconds,
and the movement time of the entire message is not more
than 10 seconds.
This bill:
1. Authorizes the City of Santa Monica's bus transit system
to establish a pilot program allowing the city's transit
buses to be equipped with illuminated signs for display
advertising on the sides of the buses.
2. Establishes conditions governing the use of illuminated
display advertising signs including:
Signs shall emit diffused non-glaring light.
Signs shall not be greater than 4,464 square inches
in area.
Signs shall not be installed in a position that
interferes with the visibility of required lamps,
reflectors, or other devices.
Signs shall not be forward or backward facing (i.e.,
not on the front or rear of the bus).
Light emitting diodes for illumination may include
red provided the colored formed by the mixing of light
from the diodes in the advertising is not red.
Signs shall be static when the buses are operating
on state freeways.
Existing standards for paging and streaming
(described above) shall apply to the display of
AB 607 (BROWNLEY) Page 3
advertising signs.
1. Requires the City of Santa Monica transit staff and the
city's police department to develop collaboratively a
report examining the safety of the display advertising
signs to the Legislature and the California Highway Patrol
by July 1, 2016.
2. Sunsets on January 1, 2017.
COMMENTS:
1. Purpose . According to the author, this bill will allow
for a pilot project that will examine the impacts of
digital display advertising on the sides of public transit
buses in Santa Monica and assist in determining whether it
is appropriate to extend the use of illuminated advertising
signs to other transit system across the state.
2. Background . Public transit agencies have long used
static signs placed on the sides of buses to display
advertising. Transit agencies receive revenue from firms
that use the signs for advertising. A project sponsored by
the Transit Cooperative Research Program, a joint venture
of the Federal Transit Administration and the
Transportation Research Board, identified the emerging
media of digital bus advertising as a revenue stream for
transit agencies. The Chicago Transit Authority began a
digital advertising on buses in 2008 and reported a 400
percent increase in revenues from static poster display
advertising.
City of Santa Monica staff reports that the current static
advertising generates about $4.1 million annually, but
expects digital signs to generate about $8 million
annually, a 100 percent increase in revenue. This added
revenue can be used to assist with the operating cost of
the transit service.
The digital signs are ultra-thin, light weight, light
emitting diode (LED) screens that can easily be mounted on
the sides of buses. Digital advertising allows for
customize advertising, including a rate structure that
varies by the time of day, because the advertising being
displayed can be managed remotely. It is, therefore,
possible to render the advertising static when the buses
AB 607 (BROWNLEY) Page 4
are operating on freeways.
3. Potential for driver distraction . Although staff is
unaware of reports of drivers being distracted by digital
display advertising on buses, the study called for in the
bill may provide information to the Legislature should
distractions be associated with accidents. The provision
in the bill requiring that the digital signs remain static
when buses operate on state freeways is recognition that
the digital signs may be a potential for distraction.
4. Suggested technical amendment . On page 4, line 24, the
bill refers to "state" freeways, which existing law does
not define. The committee may wish to consider striking
"state" and adding after freeway, "as defined in Section
257 of the Streets and Highways Code."
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 72-1
Trans: 14-0
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday,
June 1, 2011)
SUPPORT: City of Santa Monica (sponsor)
OPPOSED: None received.