BILL NUMBER: AB 529	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	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, as amended, Gatto. Vehicles: speed limits: downward speed
zoning. 
   Existing 
    (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  down 
to within 5 miles per hour of the 85th-percentile speed of
free-flowing traffic. The bill would allow, in cases  where
  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. 

   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


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 5 
 five  miles per hour of the 85th percentile of the
free-flowing traffic. However, in cases  where  
in which  the speed limit needs to be rounded up to the nearest
 5   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  5   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  consultation
  consulting  with local agencies and 
public hearings,   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.  
   The 
    (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  any
  a  person engaged in performing work 
which   that  interferes with or endangers the safe
movement of traffic upon that highway. 
   Only 
    (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. 
   Any control 
    (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.