BILL NUMBER: SB 878 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 9, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Senator DeSaulnier
FEBRUARY 18, 2011
An act to amend Section 24409 of the Vehicle Code,
relating to vehicles. An act to add Section 66536.3 to
the Government Code, relating to regional planning.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 878, as amended, DeSaulnier. Vehicles: headlights: use
of multiple beams. Regional planning: Bay Area.
(1) The Metropolitan Transportation Commission Act creates the
Metropolitan Transportation Commission as a regional agency in the
9-county Bay Area with comprehensive regional transportation planning
and other related responsibilities, including development of a
regional transportation plan with a sustainable communities strategy.
Existing law requires a joint policy committee of the commission,
the Association of Bay Area Governments, the Bay Area Air Quality
Management District, and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and
Development Commission to coordinate the development and drafting of
major planning documents prepared by the 4 agencies.
This bill would require the joint policy committee to submit
a report to the Legislature by January 31, 2013, on, among
other things, methods and strategies for developing and implementing
a multiagency set of policies and guidelines relative to the Bay
Area region's sustainable communities strategy, including
recommendations on organizational reforms for the regional agencies.
The bill would require preparation of a work plan for a regional
economic development strategy to be submitted to the Legislature on
that date. The bill would also require the member agencies to report
on public outreach efforts that they individually or jointly perform.
The bill would require public meetings in each of the region's 9
counties and creation of advisory committees, as specified. By
imposing new duties on local agen cies, the bill would
impose a state-mandated local program.
(2) The California Constitution requires the state to
reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs
mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for
making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State
Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the
state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these
statutory provisions.
(1) Existing law requires, whenever a motor vehicle is being
operated during darkness, a driver to use a distribution of light, or
composite beam, directed high enough and of sufficient intensity to
reveal persons and vehicles at a safe distance in advance of the
vehicle, subject to the specified requirements and limitations. A
violation of the Vehicle Code is a crime.
This bill would revise these specified requirements and
limitations to prohibit the use of light of such an intensity that it
poses a distraction to drivers of oncoming vehicles and to drivers
of vehicles being followed. By expanding the scope of an existing
crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse
local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all
of the following:
(a) The Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San
Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma share the
shoreline of the San Francisco Bay estuary system.
(b) The transportation technologies of the 19th and 20th centuries
progressively integrated the movement of people and goods among the
nine counties, beginning with ferryboats plying the San Francisco Bay
and the rivers flowing into it; the passenger railroad service
between San Jose and San Francisco beginning in 1864; the interurban
rail networks linking the communities within the East Bay and the
communities of the North Bay; the Golden Gate Bridge and the San
Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, erected as public works projects during
the Great Depression to facilitate the movement of motor vehicles
throughout the region; the construction of the regional freeway
network after World War II; and the creation of the Bay Area Rapid
Transit District in 1957 and the inauguration of BART transit service
in 1972.
(c) The investments in a multimodal transportation network created
an integrated regional manufacturing, financial, and technology
economy as well as opportunities for housing a growing population.
Regional business, governmental, and conservation interests
recognized that the infrastructure investments and the dynamic
economy they support created unintended consequences, including the
degradation of the atmosphere, despoiling of the shoreline shared by
the counties, land use decisions often inconsistent and at cross
purposes with neighboring communities, and a continuing need to
rationalize the transportation system and to marshal resources for
its expansion, maintenance, and operations.
(d) Various institutional reforms were initiated during the
mid-20th century to address the unintended consequences of economic
development, including the formation of the Bay Area Air Quality
Management District in 1955; the formation of a voluntary council of
governments, the Association of Bay Area Governments, in 1961 to
enhance the coordination of policy decision across municipal and
county boundaries; the formation of the Bay Conservation and
Development Commission in 1965 with the mission of persevering in
protection of San Francisco Bay and its estuary system from
destructive and ill-planned encroachment; and the establishment of
the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in 1970, California's
first statutorily created regional transportation planning agency, to
plan the region's transportation infrastructure, to prioritize
transportation investments, and to organize and manage the allocation
of financial resources necessary to implement the regional
transportation plan.
(e) The accomplishments of the above-referenced regional
institutions are among the most significant in the state and nation
and have been acknowledged by emulation or peer recognition. The
Legislature recognized that the accomplishments of the special
purpose regional institutions are noteworthy, but a new benchmark,
the integration of regional planning and environmental regulations,
is necessary to achieve the goals of sustainable communities as
called for in SB 375 of the 2007-2008 Regular Session (Chapter 728,
Statutes of 2008). To this end, it is necessary to direct the
imagination and talent of the San Francisco Bay Area's most
significant regional institutions to addressing the new benchmarks
and expectations established by SB 375.
SEC. 2. Section 66536.3 is added to the
Government Code , to read:
66536.3. (a) The joint policy committee shall prepare a report
for submission to the Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing
and the Assembly Committee on Transportation on or before January 31,
2013, addressing all of the following:
(1) Methods and strategies for developing and promulgating a
multiagency set of policies and guidelines governing the sustainable
communities strategy required pursuant to subparagraph (B) of
paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 65080.
(2) Methods and strategies for improving the efficiency and
effectiveness of policy setting and managerial coordination among the
regional agencies constituting the joint policy committee.
(3) Methods and strategies for ensuring that the public in the
nine counties of the region has an opportunity to comment on the
proposed polices and standards that will be promulgated by the joint
policy committee for implementing the sustainable communities
strategies. When preparing the strategies, there shall be included
criteria to assess the transparency in regional decisionmaking.
(4) Recommendations on organizational reform to effectuate the
above requirements, including recommendations as to whether such a
regional organization shall be established by legislation, a joint
exercise of power agreement, or some other institutional arrangement
specifying the terms of interagency collaboration that address the
sustainable communities requirements. The report should include the
criteria for selecting the recommended institutional arrangement.
(b) The joint policy committee shall prepare a work plan for a
nine-county economic development strategy to be submitted to the
Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing and the Assembly
Committee on Transportation on or before January 31, 2013. The report
shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
(1) Coordination of the regional sustainable communities strategy
with local goals for the recruitment and retention of manufacturing,
production facilities, business services, and other business
enterprises providing high quality jobs that will remunerate
employees sufficiently so that their household incomes will allow
them to live in the Bay Area, educate their children, and enjoy the
region's amenities.
(2) Regional strategies to ensure the coordination of
infrastructure investments, including transportation facilities and
services, for planned employment centers.
(3) Strategies for ensuring a common regulatory system for
deployment and permitting of energy conservation facilities and
improvements.
(4) Regional strategies for adaptation to climate change.
(c) The activities associated with development of the reports in
subdivisions (a) and (b) shall include public meetings in each of the
region's counties. In addition, communication with the public in
that regard shall include the use of conventional media as well as
social media. Advisory committees shall be formed that include
representation from the regional business community, labor, and other
interests.
(d) The member agencies of the joint policy committee shall also
prepare a report identifying the public outreach and community
outreach efforts that they individually or jointly perform under
federal and state law when carrying out the respective missions of
their agencies. The report shall identify the criteria they use to
determine the communities and groups that will be the subject of
outreach. The report shall identify the actions and methods that the
agencies employ to ensure that policy decisions are made in a
transparent and accessible fashion. The report prepared by each
agency shall be submitted to the Senate Committee on Transportation
and Housing and the Assembly Committee on Transportation on or before
January 31, 2013, and may be incorporated with the other reports
required by subdivisions (a) and (b).
SEC. 3. If the Commission on State Mandates
determines that this act contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs
shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of
Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
SECTION 1. Section 24409 of the Vehicle Code is
amended to read:
24409. Whenever a motor vehicle is being operated during
darkness, the driver shall use a distribution of light, or composite
beam, directed high enough and of sufficient intensity to reveal
persons and vehicles at a safe distance in advance of the vehicle,
subject to the following requirements and limitations:
(a) Whenever the driver of a vehicle approaches an oncoming
vehicle within 500 feet, the driver shall use a distribution of light
or composite beam so aimed that the glaring rays are not projected
into the eyes of the oncoming driver and shall not use a light of
such intensity that it poses a distraction to drivers of oncoming
vehicles. The lowermost distribution of light specified in this
article shall be deemed to avoid glare at all times regardless of
road contour.
(b) Whenever the driver of a vehicle follows another vehicle
within 300 feet to the rear, he shall use the lowermost distribution
of light specified in this article and shall ensure that it is not of
such an intensity as to pose a distraction to the driver of the
vehicle being followed.
SEC. 2. No reimbursement is required by this
act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local
agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a
new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or
changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of
Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a
crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the
California Constitution.