BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 1915 (Alejo) - Safe Routes to School construction program.
Amended: June 26, 2012 Policy Vote: T&H 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 6, 2012
Consultant: Mark McKenzie
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 1915 would expand the Safe Routes to School
Program (SR2S) to include projects outside the vicinity of
schools that create safe routes to schoolbus stops.
Fiscal Impact:.
Cost pressures of up to $2.4 million annually (State
Highway Account) by dedicating up to 10 percent of SR2S
funds for a purpose that is currently unauthorized.
Minor costs to Caltrans to update program guidelines (State
Highway Account)
Background: The Department of Transportation (Caltrans)
administers both a state and federally-funded Safe Routes to
School program. Both the state and federal programs are
designed to increase the number of children who walk or bike to
school by funding projects that remove barriers that prevent or
discourage them from doing so. Typical projects include
installing curbs, sidewalks, traffic signals, crosswalks,
warning signs, and bicycle paths. The state program is funded
by annual appropriations from the State Highway Account that are
distributed on a statewide, competitive basis. The most recent
cycle covered the 2011-12 and 2012-13 and was funded at
$48,466,000 ($24.23 million per year). Eligible project
applications currently exceed available funds by a 6:1 ratio.
Proposed Law: AB 1915 would authorize Caltrans to use up to 10
percent of SR2S funds to assist eligible recipients in making
infrastructure improvements, other than schoolbus shelters, that
create safe routes to schoolbus stops that are located outside
the vicinity of schools.
AB 1915 (Alejo)
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Related Legislation: The state SR2S program was established by
AB 1475 (Soto) Chap 663/1999 and permanently extended by AB 57
(Soto) Chap 673/2007. Last year, AB 516 (V.M. Perez) Chap
277/2011 modified the project ranking factors to facilitate
increased participation from low-income communities.
Staff Comments: This bill is intended to serve the safety needs
of low-income rural school children who depend on buses to
transport them to school and often walk along busy roads with
insufficient or low-quality walking infrastructure. Since
current law does not allow SR2S program funds to support
infrastructure improvements that increase pedestrian safety for
children walking to school bus stops, rural communities whose
children rely on bus transportation cannot enjoy the benefits of
the program.
AB 1915 dedicates up to 10 percent of available state SR2S
funding for projects that create safe routes to schoolbus stops
that are not in the vicinity of a school. By establishing a new
purpose for a fixed source of funds, this bill would create cost
pressures of up to $2.4 million annually. As stated above, the
state SR2S program is already oversubscribed by a 6:1 ratio.
This bill would increase competition among project applicants
for limited funds, and could result in a reallocation of funds
to projects that are not in the vicinity of schools.
The basic goal of both the federal and state Safe Routes to
School program is to enable and encourage children, including
those with disabilities, to walk and bicycle to school; to make
walking and bicycling to school safe and more appealing; and to
facilitate the planning, development and implementation of
projects that will improve safety, and reduce traffic, fuel
consumption, and air pollution in the vicinity of schools. The
bill could be perceived as antithetical to the goals of the
program by funding projects that support bus transportation.