California Legislation Watch: Weekly Update

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Here’s Streetsblog’s weekly highlight of legislation and events related to sustainable transportation at the California capitol.

The big news out of Sacramento is that Caltrans endorsed the NACTO Urban Street Design Guidelines.

S.B. 1183, Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord): this is the so-called “bike tax bill”--oops, sorry, the “Local Bike Infrastructure Enhancement Act of 2014.” It was set to be discussed on Wednesday in the Senate Governance and Finance Committee, but the hearing was postponed after committee staff released its analysis. The bill, which would allow park districts to impose a tax on bicycles, is supposed to be a user tax that provides a small but regular flow of funds for the maintenance of trails, including paved bike trails, in the parks. Staff identified several problems with it, including potential difficulties for the Board of Equalization in administering the tax, and the lack of a direct connection between the buyer of a bicycle and the user of a bike path. “The Committee may wish to consider whether S.B. 1183 represents wise tax policy,” says its report.

A.B. 2398, Marc Levine (D-San Rafael): the “vulnerable road user law” was amended in the Assembly's Transportation Committee this week. The bill would raise fines for drivers convicted of causing bodily injury to a vulnerable road user, including pedestrians and bicyclists. The amendment raises the lowest level fine to $220, which becomes $1,031 after the court adds its fees. In addition, the amendment requires a 6-month license suspension for anyone who has a repeat violation within 3 years. This bill will be heard again on April 21, when the legislature returns from spring recess.

A.B. 2197 from Kevin Mullin (D-South San Francisco): It takes a while for the DMV to issue license plates to newly purchased cars, and, in the meantime, those cars can be driven as long as they display a DMV-issued, numbered form. This bill would require the DMV to come up with a system for issuing temporary license plates that can be attached on the front and back of a car at the time of purchase. The bill cites a lack of license plates “on hundreds of thousands of vehicles across the state” as a problem for law enforcement and toll collectors. Meanwhile a petition in support of the bill has been started by the family of a hit-and-run victim killed by a driver in a car without plates. Administrative amendments were made to the bill in the Assembly Transportation Committee, and it is scheduled to be heard again on April 21.