BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: ab 2707
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: Chau
VERSION: 5/22/14
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: no
Hearing date: June 10, 2014
SUBJECT:
Bus length limits: bicycle racks
DESCRIPTION:
This bill allows transit providers to install larger bike racks
on buses that are 40 feet long or shorter.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law limits the length of a bus to 45 feet. A public
transit operator may equip its buses of any length with bike
racks that extend up to 36 inches out from the front of its
buses and which may be loaded such that the bike handle bars
extend up to 42 inches in front of the bus. In no case,
however, can the total length of the bus, the bike rack, and
bikes total a length greater than 48.5 feet.
Existing law permits the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District
(AC Transit), the Gold Coast Transit District, and the
Sacramento Regional Transit District (RT) to install on their
buses bike racks that extend up to 40 inches in front of the bus
(i.e., an additional four inches), provided that the handlebars
of the bikes loaded extend no more than 46 inches.
These districts must report to the Assembly Transportation
Committee and this committee on any traffic incidents or
accidents where the size of the bike rack was a factor, as well
as a summary of the mobility improvements the bike racks
provided. AC Transit's report is due on December 31, 2014; Gold
Coast's report is due on December 31, 2017; and RT's report is
due December 31, 2018.
This bill permits any public transit operator to equip its buses
of up to 40 feet in length with bike racks that extend up to 40
(rather than 36) inches out from the front of its buses and
which may be loaded such that the bike handle bars extend up to
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46 (rather than 42) inches in front of the bus.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . The author notes that ridership on public
transportation is increasing throughout the country, pointing
to the nearly 10.7 billion trips riders took in the U.S. last
year on buses, trains, and subways. This constituted the
highest total since 1956. Proponents assert that transit
riders are increasingly using bicycles to access transit and
the use of a rack which can accommodate three bicycles is
necessary to accommodate that growth. Most racks that can
hold three bicycles (rather than just two) measure 40 inches
when fully deployed, exceeding the 36-inch limit established
in law.
As previously noted, the Legislature has authorized AC Transit
(2009), Gold Coast Transit (2012), and Sacramento RT (2013) to
equip their buses with triple bike racks without being in
violation of vehicle length limits in state law.
The author states that transit agencies around the state would
like the authority to equip their 40-foot buses with triple
bike racks to accommodate the growing number of transit riders
using bicycles to access public transit. This bill gives
transit agencies statewide the authority they need to install
these triple bike racks on their 40-foot buses to meet the
growing demand among transit users.
2.Route review committees . Existing law requires that in order
for a transit agency to operate its 45-foot buses with bike
racks (but not buses less than 45 feet), it must establish a
route review committee. The route review committee conducts a
field review of routes where these buses would travel and
consults traffic engineers from public agencies with
jurisdiction over roads that the bus routes follow. Only when
a route review committee by unanimous vote determines that
45-foot buses with 36-inch front bike racks can operate safely
on the selected routes may the public transit agency then
operate such buses on those routes. The route review
committee is comprised of:
A representative of the transit agency appointed by the
general manager of that agency;
A traffic engineer from the public agency that has
jurisdiction over the largest proportion of the transit
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agency's bus routes; and
A representative of the bus drivers chosen by the labor
organization representing the bus drivers.
This bill applies only to buses of up to 40 feet in length and
so does not invoke this statutory route review committee. The
three pilot projects require enhanced route review committees
for 45-foot buses in those transit districts.
The United Transportation Union (UTU) opposes this bill
because it does not include a route review committee to
approve use of these larger bike racks on 40-foot buses.
Calling this omission a fatal flaw in the bill, UTU notes that
only once a local route review committee has surveyed a route
and deemed a bus with a larger bike rack route safe over it
should buses so outfitted be able to operate on the route.
1.Just one more bike . There is at least one commercially
available bike rack that holds three bicycles and extends less
than 36 inches from the front of the bus, satisfying the
requirements of existing law. Using that rack or a rack that
this bill would make legal enables three bicyclists - rather
than two - to ride a bus. Given the growing number of bus
riders who use bicycles to complete their transit trips, this
bill provides a very limited response to the problem, as it
would be the fourth bicyclist rather than the third who would
not be able to board the bus due to lack of space in the bike
rack. State law allows for a larger rack on the back of buses
that can accommodate up to ten bicycles, but these are not
popular. It is unclear, therefore, how bus providers could
better address the problem of bicyclists being unable to board
due to lack of space for their bikes.
2.What about the pilots ? The UTU opposes this bill as premature
given that the three pilot project reports are due to the
Legislature over the next few years. As noted below in
"Related Legislation," the three pilot transit agencies are
authorized to put larger bike racks on any buses up to 45
feet, but they have not installed larger bike racks on their
buses that are longer than 40 feet. This bill, therefore,
essentially expands the pilot project as implemented
statewide.
PREVIOUS LEGISLATION:
AB 652 (Skinner), Chapter 369, Statutes of 2009, gave AC
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Transit authority to install 40-inch bike racks on its buses,
including on its 45-foot buses, but only pursuant to a vote of
a route review committee. AC Transit reports that it never
installed racks on any of its 45-foot buses but has installed
40-inch racks on about 50 of its 40-foot buses. It is
tracking incidents and will be prepared to report on the racks
on schedule this year.
AB 2488 (Williams), Chapter 376, Statutes of 2012, gave the
same authority to Gold Coast Transit in Ventura County as AB
652 had given to AC Transit. Last spring, Gold Coast Transit
installed three larger bike racks on its buses, but none on
45-foot buses as it only owns 35- and 40-foot buses.
AB 206 (Dickinson), Chapter 95, Statutes of 2013, provides a
third transit district with the authority to install 40-inch
bike racks on its buses. RT has yet to install larger bike
racks on its buses, but plans to do so on some of its 40-foot
buses in the near future.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 74-0
Trans: 15-0
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday, June 4,
2014.)
SUPPORT: Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation
Authority (sponsor)
California Association of Bicycling Organizations
North County Transit District
OPPOSED: United Transportation Union