Bill Text: CA AB529 | 2011-2012 | Regular Session | Enrolled

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Vehicles: speed limits: downward speed zoning.

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Passed) 2011-10-07 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 528, Statutes of 2011. [AB529 Detail]

Download: California-2011-AB529-Enrolled.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 529	ENROLLED
	BILL TEXT

	PASSED THE SENATE  AUGUST 30, 2011
	PASSED THE ASSEMBLY  SEPTEMBER 2, 2011
	AMENDED IN SENATE  AUGUST 18, 2011
	AMENDED IN SENATE  JULY 11, 2011
	AMENDED IN SENATE  JUNE 16, 2011
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MAY 3, 2011
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 24, 2011

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Gatto
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Achadjian, Smyth, and Williams)

                        FEBRUARY 15, 2011

   An act to amend Section 21400 of the Vehicle Code, relating to
vehicles.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 529, Gatto. Vehicles: speed limits: downward speed zoning.
   (1) Existing law requires the Department of Transportation, after
consultation with local agencies and public hearings, to adopt rules
and regulations prescribing uniform standards and specifications for
all official traffic control devices and setting of speed limits.
Existing law makes it a crime for a driver to fail to obey a sign or
signal, defined as regulatory in the California Manual on Uniform
Traffic Control Devices (Manual), or a Department of
Transportation-approved supplement to that manual.
   This bill would require the Department of Transportation to revise
the Manual, as it read on January 1, 2012, to require the department
or a local authority to round speed limits to within 5 miles per
hour of the 85th-percentile speed of free-flowing traffic. The bill
would allow, in cases in which the speed limit needs to be rounded up
to the nearest 5 miles per hour increment of the 85th-percentile
speed, the department or a local authority to decide to instead round
down the speed limit to the lower 5 miles per hour increment, but
then the department or a local authority would be prohibited from
reducing the speed limit any further for any reason.
   (2) This bill would incorporate changes to Section 21400 of the
Vehicle Code proposed by both this bill and AB 345, which would
become operative only if both bills are enacted and become effective
on or before January 1, 2012, and this bill is chaptered last.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  It is the intent of the Legislature that the changes
made to subdivision (b) of Section 21400 of the Vehicle Code by
Section 2 of this act or the changes made to subdivision (f) of
Section 21400 of the Vehicle Code by Section 2.5 of this act shall
not alter any other provision of the California Manual on Uniform
Traffic Control Devices as it read on January 1, 2012.
  SEC. 2.  Section 21400 of the Vehicle Code is amended to read:
   21400.  (a) (1) The Department of Transportation shall, after
consultation with local agencies and public hearings, adopt rules and
regulations prescribing uniform standards and specifications for all
official traffic control devices placed pursuant to this code,
including, but not limited to, stop signs, yield right-of-way signs,
speed restriction signs, railroad warning approach signs, street name
signs, lines and markings on the roadway, and stock crossing signs
placed pursuant to Section 21364.
   (2) The Department of Transportation shall, after notice and
public hearing, determine and publicize the specifications for
uniform types of warning signs, lights, and devices to be placed upon
a highway by a person engaged in performing work that interferes
with or endangers the safe movement of traffic upon that highway.
   (3) Only those signs, lights, and devices as are provided for in
this section shall be placed upon a highway to warn traffic of work
that is being performed on the highway.
   (4)  Control devices or markings installed upon traffic barriers
on or after January 1, 1984, shall conform to the uniform standards
and specifications required by this section.
   (b) The Department of Transportation shall revise the California
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, as it read on January 1,
2012, to require the Department of Transportation or a local
authority to round speed limits to the nearest five miles per hour of
the 85th percentile of the free-flowing traffic. However, in cases
in which the speed limit needs to be rounded up to the nearest five
miles per hour increment of the 85th-percentile speed, the Department
of Transportation or a local authority may decide to instead round
down the speed limit to the lower five miles per hour increment, but
then the Department of Transportation or a local authority shall not
reduce the speed limit any further for any reason.
  SEC. 2.5.  Section 21400 of the Vehicle Code is amended to read:
   21400.  (a) (1) The Department of Transportation shall, after
consulting with local agencies and groups representing users of
streets, roads, and highways, establishing a committee to advise the
department, and holding public hearings regarding rules and
regulations, adopt rules and regulations prescribing uniform
standards and specifications for all official traffic control devices
placed pursuant to this code, including, but not limited to, stop
signs, yield right-of-way signs, speed restriction signs, railroad
warning approach signs, street name signs, lines and markings on the
roadway, and stock crossing signs placed pursuant to Section 21364.
   (2) The committee shall be composed of the following members:
   (A) One representative selected by the director of the department.

   (B) One representative recommended by the Commissioner of the
California Highway Patrol.
   (C) Two representatives recommended by the League of California
Cities.
   (D) Two representatives recommended by the California State
Association of Counties.
   (E) Two representatives from motorized users of the highway. One
shall be recommended by the Automobile Club of Southern California
and one shall be recommended by AAA Northern California, Nevada and
Utah.
   (F) Two representatives, approved by the director, from
nonmotorized users of the highway recommended by the Active
Transportation and Livable Communities Committee created within the
department.
   (b) For purposes of this section, "users of the highway" means
bicyclists, children, persons with disabilities, motorists, movers of
commercial goods, pedestrians, users of public transportation, and
seniors.
   (c) The Department of Transportation shall, after notice and
public hearing, determine and publicize the specifications for
uniform types of warning signs, lights, and devices to be placed upon
a highway by a person engaged in performing work that interferes
with or endangers the safe movement of traffic upon that highway.
   (d) Only those signs, lights, and devices as are provided for in
this section shall be placed upon a highway to warn traffic of work
which is being performed on the highway.
   (e) Control devices or markings installed upon traffic barriers on
or after January 1, 1984, shall conform to the uniform standards and
specifications required by this section.
   (f) The Department of Transportation shall revise the California
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, as it read on January 1,
2012, to require the Department of Transportation or a local
authority to round speed limits to the nearest five miles per hour of
the 85th percentile of the free-flowing traffic. However, in cases
in which the speed limit needs to be rounded up to the nearest five
miles per hour increment of the 85th-percentile speed, the Department
of Transportation or a local authority may decide to instead round
down the speed limit to the lower five miles per hour increment, but
then the Department of Transportation or a local authority shall not
reduce the speed limit any further for any reason.
  SEC. 3.  Section 2.5 of this bill incorporates amendments to
Section 21400 of the Vehicle Code proposed by both this bill and
Assembly Bill 345. It shall only become operative if (1) both bills
are enacted and become effective on or before January 1, 2012, (2)
each bill amends Section 21400 of the Vehicle Code, and (3) this bill
is enacted after Assembly Bill 345, in which case Section 2 of this
bill shall not become operative.