Transportation (Roads & Highways)

Existing law requires a magistrate to issue a warrant or order authorizing a peace officer to immediately seize and cause the removal of a vehicle if the magistrate is presented with a peace officer's affidavit establishing reasonable cause to believe that the vehicle was an instrumentality used in the peace officer's presence in violation of specified offenses, including, among others, a person who engages in a motor vehicle speed contest or exhibition of speed on a highway or in an offstreet parking facility, as specified. Existing law makes it a crime to drive a vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater than 100 miles per hour. This bill would include the above-described crime in the list of offenses for which a peace officer may impound a vehicle pursuant to a warrant or order issued by a magistrate.

The Freeway Service Patrol Act authorizes and provides funding for freeway service patrols, operated pursuant to an agreement between the Department of the California Highway Patrol, the Department of Transportation, and a regional or local governmental entity, to provide emergency roadside assistance on traffic-congested urban freeways throughout the state. The act requires each tow truck participating in a freeway service patrol to bear a specified logo that identifies the Department of the California Highway Patrol and the Department of Transportation, and, at the option of the entity, the participating regional or local entity. This bill would require the Department of Transportation, the Department of the California Highway Patrol, and participating and eligible regional and local entities to, each time the guidelines for program operations are updated after January 1, 2026, consider developing or revising and including in the guidelines operational requirements for sponsorship agreements between a participating regional or local entity and any private third party that allow for the display of the sponsor's name and logo on participating tow trucks, as provided. The bill would authorize a participating regional or local entity to generate additional revenue for its freeway service patrol by entering into a sponsorship agreement, subject to those operational requirements, that allows for the display of a sponsor's name and logo on participating tow trucks, as specified, that are in addition to the above-described required logo.

Existing law requires a manufacturer who sells or provides for compensation, and, commencing January 1, 2026, an owner of, a trash receptacle or storage container that is longer than 3 feet and taller than 4 feet and that is designed to be placed on a roadway or the curb of a roadway in order to be emptied or picked up to mark the receptacle or container with a reflector on each side. Existing law additionally requires 8 strips of fluorescent yellow reflective tape made of certain high-performance retroreflective sheeting to be placed on specified locations on a trash receptacle or storage container, unless the trash receptacle or storage container's reflective tape is made of the high-performance retroreflective sheeting and was applied before July 1, 2023. This bill would apply this exemption from the additional, 8-strip requirement to a receptacle or container with reflectors applied prior to January 1, 2025, and would eliminate the exemption's requirement for the reflectors to be reflective tape made of certain high-performance retroreflective sheeting. The bill would require, when not exempted, the reflective tape for a storage container transported by truck and trailer to be fluorescent yellow, red, white, or alternating red and white, and be made of specified high-performance retroreflective sheeting.

The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 requires the Director of Transportation, upon consultation with the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, to review and modify all bid specifications relating to the purchase of paving materials, and base, subbase, and pervious backfill materials, using recycled materials. Existing law requires the specifications to be based on standards developed by the Department of Transportation for recycled paving materials and for recycled base, subbase, and pervious backfill materials. Existing law requires a local agency that has jurisdiction over a street or highway, to the extent feasible and cost effective, to apply standard specifications that allow for the use of recycled materials in streets and highways, except as provided. Existing law requires, until January 1, 2027, those standard specifications to allow recycled materials at or above the level allowed in the Department of Transportation's standard specifications that went into effect on October 22, 2018, for specified materials. This bill would indefinitely require a local agency's standard specifications to allow recycled materials at a level no less than the level allowed in the department's specifications for those specified materials. If a local agency's standard specifications do not allow for the use of recycled materials at a level that is equal to or greater than the level allowed in the department's standard specifications on the basis that the use of those recycled materials at those levels is not feasible, the bill would authorize a person bidding on a contract to supply materials subject to those specifications to request the local agency to provide the reason for that determination upon request and would require the local agency to respond to that request, as specified. By increasing the duties of local agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires the Department of Transportation and a local agency that has jurisdiction over a street or highway, to the extent feasible and cost effective, to use advanced technologies and material recycling techniques that reduce the cost of maintaining and rehabilitating streets and highways and that exhibit reduced levels of greenhouse gas emissions through material choice and construction method. This bill would eliminate this requirement. 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.

Existing law requires the Department of Transportation to improve and maintain the state's highways, and establishes various programs to fund the development, construction, and repair of local roads, bridges, and other critical transportation infrastructure in the state. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact subsequent legislation to improve safety on the roads in the state.

Existing law requires the Department of the California Highway Patrol to adopt reasonable rules and regulations that, in the judgment of the department, are designed to promote the safe operation of specified vehicles, including, among other vehicles, schoolbuses and commercial motor vehicles. Existing law requires the Commissioner of the California Highway Patrol to appoint an advisory committee to assist with developing and adopting regulations affecting school pupil transportation. Existing law specifies appointment of the 11 members of the committee, including, among others, one member employed as a schoolbus driver. This bill would expand the committee to 13 members by including the appointment of 2 members of low-income communities, as specified.

Existing law vests the Department of Transportation with full possession and control of the state highway system and requires the department to update the Highway Design Manual to incorporate the "complete streets" design concept. This bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2026, to update the Highway Design Manual to direct local governments to consult with local fire departments when making road improvements to ensure the improvements do not negatively impact emergency response times.

Existing law vests the Department of Transportation with full possession and control of the state highway system and associated property. Existing law generally requires proceeds from the sale of excess state highway property to be made available for other highway purposes. Existing law generally requires the California Transportation Commission to program available funding for transportation capital projects, other than state highway rehabilitation projects, through the State Transportation Improvement Program process, with available funds subject to various fair share distribution formulas. Existing law, in certain cases, requires the commission to instead reallocate funds from canceled state highway projects to a local alternative transportation improvement program within the same county and exempts those funds from the fair share distribution formulas that would otherwise apply. This bill, with respect to planned state transportation facilities over the Feather River in the City of Yuba City and the Counties of Sutter and Yuba, which facilities are no longer planned to be constructed, would authorize the affected local agencies, acting jointly with the transportation planning agency having jurisdiction, to develop and file with the commission a local alternative transportation improvement program that addresses transportation problems and opportunities in the area that was to be served by the planned state facilities. The bill would require all proceeds from the sale of excess properties acquired by the department for the canceled state facilities, less any reimbursements due to the federal government and costs incurred in the sale of those excess properties, to be allocated by the commission to fund regional priorities.

Existing law vests the Department of Transportation with full possession and control of all state highways. 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 establish the Highway Signage Fund in the State Treasury and would make moneys in the fund available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for the department's costs in erecting signage for highway designations previously approved by the Legislature that memorialize individuals who have promoted racial and gender equity.

Existing law establishes the Department of Transportation to, among other things, plan, design, construct, operate, and maintain the state highway system, as provided. Pursuant to that authority, the department developed 12 district-based Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment reports designed to provide the department with a comprehensive database to help in evaluating, mitigating, and adapting to the effects of increasing extreme weather events on the state transportation system. This bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2029, to identify key community resilience indicators for measuring the impacts of climate-induced transportation disruptions, as specified. The bill would also require the department, on or before January 1, 2030, to include in the Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment reports an evaluation of the broader social and economic impacts on communities connected to the evaluated infrastructure risks, as specified.