BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: SB 1174
SENATOR ALAN LOWENTHAL, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: lowenthal
VERSION: 4/1/08
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: April 8, 2008
SUBJECT:
Quiet cars
DESCRIPTION:
This bill directs the California Energy Resources Conservation
and Development Commission (CEC) to convene a Quiet Motorized
Vehicle and Safe Mobility Committee to investigate strategies to
increase pedestrian safety around electric and other quiet
vehicles.
ANALYSIS:
Under existing law, the CEC serves as the state's primary energy
policy and planning agency, including policy and planning
related to transportation fuels and vehicle technologies.
Since 1996, the CEC has administered the Public Interest Energy
Research (PIER) program, which supports research, development,
and demonstration projects to improve the quality of life in
California by bringing environmentally safe, affordable, and
reliable energy services and products to the marketplace. The
PIER program annually awards up to $62 million to conduct the
research in partnership with public or private research
institutions.
Transportation research under the PIER program is intended to
accelerate the development, availability, and use of alternative
fuels, advanced vehicle technologies, and advanced
transportation systems and strategies.
This bill :
1)Makes legislative findings and declarations on the dangers to
pedestrians, particularly those who are blind or visually
impaired, posed by electric and gas-electric hybrid vehicles,
which run much more quietly than internal combustion engines.
SB 1174 (LOWETHAL) Page 2
2)Requires the CEC to convene a Quiet Motorized Road Vehicle and
Safe Mobility Committee comprised of representatives of
vehicle manufacturers, the blind or visually impaired
pedestrian community, vehicle research entities, and law
enforcement organizations, including the California Highway
Patrol (CHP).
3)Directs the committee to research, identify, and make
recommendations to the CEC on strategies to ensure that motor
vehicles, regardless of engine type or configuration, emit
sound sufficient to be heard and localized by pedestrians who
are blind or visually impaired. The recommendations shall
include proposed legislation and regulations, needed research
or technology, and funding options for implementing the
recommendations.
4)Requires that the CEC report by January 1, 2010 to the
Legislature on the recommendations of the committee.
5)Directs CEC to use non-General Fund revenue sources to
implement the bill.
6)Sunsets on January 1, 2011.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose . The author introduced this bill at the request of the
California Council of the Blind to address the need for
research on quiet cars, vehicles that emit very little sound
because they are powered by electric motors, including
gas-electric hybrid vehicles that are idling or moving at slow
speeds. The sponsor notes that blind and vision-impaired
travelers rely upon the presence or absence of many auditory
cues to allow them to move safely through streets and traffic.
The sounds of vehicles or groups of vehicles moving and idling
help them determine what is happening at an intersection and
when it is safe to cross.
Last year, Americans purchased over 350,000 new hybrid
vehicles, and DMV reports that there are currently 223,700
hybrid vehicles registered in California. With these numbers
and the increasing popularity of gas-electric hybrid vehicles,
the sponsor believes that it is imperative that strategies be
undertaken to address the pedestrian safety issues associated
with these vehicles.
SB 1174 (LOWETHAL) Page 3
The CEC indicates that it is currently considering research on
quiet cars under its PIER transportation research program, in
part due to inquiries by the sponsor and author. CEC staff
report also that the topic of quiet cars is attracting
attention due to both the increasing demand for gas-electric
hybrids and the development of plug-in hybrid vehicles, which
have a greater all-electric, and therefore quiet, range
because they have an electric motor that runs on a
rechargeable battery.
The author reports that he is in contact with the CEC on the
construction of its quiet car research and that this bill is
intended to support CEC's efforts, to ensure appropriate
representation of the blind community in the design of the
research, and to provide for reporting of the findings of that
research to the Legislature.
2)Why state government ? Over the past few years, representatives
of the blind and visually impaired community have made
requests to the federal government and to national research
organizations to initiate research and strategies to address
quiet cars' pedestrian safety issues, but thus far, those
institutions have been unresponsive. The blind community has
now turned to state governments to fill the void. Recently,
the Maryland House of Delegates passed legislation to create a
task force to conduct a study and recommend solutions.
3)Technical amendments .
On page 3, lines 8-9, strike "State Energy Resources and
Conservation and Development Commission" and insert
"commission"
On page 3, line 13, after "department" insert "of the
California Highway Patrol"
1)Double-referral . The Rules Committee referred this bill both
to the Transportation and Housing Committee and to the
Environmental Quality Committee. Therefore, if this bill
passes this committee, it will be referred to the Committee on
Environmental Quality.
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday, April 2,
2008)
SB 1174 (LOWETHAL) Page 4
SUPPORT: California Council of the Blind (sponsor)
OPPOSED: None received.