Street furniture data: statewide integrated data platform.

Existing law authorizes the Department of Transportation to develop, in cooperation with local and regional transportation entities, the full potential of all resources and opportunities that are now, and may become, available to the state and to regional and local agencies for meeting California's transportation needs. Existing law authorizes the department to do any act necessary, convenient, or proper for the construction, improvement, maintenance, or use of all highways that are under its jurisdiction, possession, or control. This bill would require the department to develop guidelines for data sharing, documentation, public access, quality control, and promotion of open-source and accessible platforms and decision support tools related to street furniture data, as provided. The bill would define "street furniture" as objects and pieces of equipment installed along a street or road to provide amenities for pedestrians, including, but not limited to, bus shelters, trash receptacles, benches, or public toilets. The bill would require the department to develop the guidelines, in collaboration with specified state and local agencies, and submit a report to the Legislature by January 1, 2025, and every 3 years thereafter, describing those guidelines. To the extent this imposes duties on local agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also require the department to designate the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program Technical Advisory Council, or another entity with expertise and experience working on equity, to advise on the development of the initial and subsequent guidelines, and review the reports related to those guidelines, as provided. The bill also would require the department, in consultation with the Office of Planning and Research, to use the California Minimum General Transit Feed Specification guidelines to integrate statewide and publicly accessible street furniture data on a statewide integrated data platform on a specified schedule. The bill would require the department to, among other things, publicize those data sharing protocols to allow trip planner applications to use the street data furniture, thereby allowing transit customers to plan trips based on the data, and make available existing street furniture data held by state agencies on the platform. The bill would require the statewide integrated data platform to, at a minimum, integrate existing data from multiple autonomous databases managed by state, local, and academic entities, and integrate specified datasets, as provided. To the extent this imposes duties on local agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.