In developing transportation related legislative issues and proposals to bring forward for consideration by TWIC, staff receives input from the Board of Supervisors, references the County's adopted Legislative Platforms, coordinates with our legislative advocates, partner agencies and organizations, and consults with the Committee itself. Recommendations are summarized in the Recommendation(s)/Next Step(s) section at the end of this report and specific references to recommendations are underlined in the report below.
This report includes three sections, 1) LOCAL, 2) STATE, and 3) FEDERAL:
1) LOCAL
A)The 2014 Countywide Transportation Plan (CTP) Update & Planning for Possible 2016 Ballot Measure: This is a standing item for the foreseeable future.
The Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) is in the process of developing the 2014 Countywide Transportation Plan (CTP) which will be finalized and adopted in early 2015.
The planning process is expected to produce a financially unconstrained project/program list of approximately $5B. This list will ultimately be narrowed down to approximately $2.5B. At that point, a more detailed discussion regarding revenue options to pay for the proposed programs and projects will take place. The level of engagement of the County and the Board of Supervisors will vary depending on what funding option, if any, is pursued.
March 2015 Update:
Adoption is scheduled for the March 18th CCTA Board Meeting.
The latest draft of the CTP was recently released for review. Staff is currently reviewing the document and, given the time constraints, is requesting to bring any comments to the Board of Supervisors at their March 10, 2015 meeting.
For the Committee's reference, the latest draft is available on the Technical Coordinating Committee's February 19th agenda under Item 6: Review of Draft Final 2014 Countywide Transportation Plan:
http://ccta.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=1&event_id=272
2) STATE
It is relatively early in the legislative session, but the attached document (Positions on Legislation of Interest - 2015.pdf) includes a preliminary list of bills to monitor.
Mark Watts, the County's legislative advocate, will be present to provide a verbal report and has also submitted a written report which is attached, (February 2015 Sacramento Report.pdf).
2015 State Delegation (outgoing)
AD 11: Jim Frazier
AD 14: Susan Bonilla
AD 15: Tony Thurmond (Nancy Skinner)
AD 16: Catharine Baker (Joan Buchanan)
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SD 9: Loni Hancock
SD 7: Vacant (Mark DeSaulnier)
2) B) School Siting & Safety:
Staff and the Board of Supervisors (BOS) have been pursuing improved school siting and safety. This effort has resulted in a number of initiatives, updates on each are below. Staff recommends continuing to work with appropriate parties to advocate for County and statewide school safety interests as outlined below.
2) B-1: School Siting Reform: A Joint Senate Informational Hearing K-12 School Facilities Program was held on February 18th. There was substantial discussion regarding school siting relative to Sustainable Communities and Greenhouse Gas Reduction. Comments from the State Allocation Board Executive Office (Bill Savidge) include an emphasis on pedestrian and bicycle safety and commenting that schools should not be driving sprawl. It is rare that these hearings include discussions about land use and transportation issues, the focus is typically on administrative and budget issues. Staff recommends immediately transmitting a letter to the Co-Chairs of the Committee (Liu and Block) with a copy to our delegation's member on the Committee, Senator Loni Hancock.The letter would communicate the concerns of the BOS for school safety and express gratitude for the Committees acknowledgement of land use and transportation issues relative to school siting.
2) B-2: School Zone Expansion: Last year Senator Anthony Cannella sponsored SB1151 which would have increased fines in school zones. The BOS supported the bill and made a friendly request that our school zone expansion concept be included. Cannella's staff supported the concept but for mostly administrative reasons could not include it in SB 1151.
Late in 2014 we were contacted by Cannella's staff asking if they could move ahead with our school zone expansion concept. We considered the advantages with having our delegation move it forward. However, Cannella was able to move SB 1151 through the legislature with no opposition (w/the notable exception of the Governor's veto) so we opted to support his sponsorship. The County's legislative advocate, Mark Watts, worked with both our delegation and Cannella's office to move the proposal forward. We anticipate a bill being introduced in the near future.
2) B-3: Increased Point Penalty in School Zones: Recognizing the Governor's opposition to increased fines, staff put together a proposal that increases the points levied against a driver's license for moving violations in school zones. The proposal mimics existing statutory language; professional-commercial drivers are held to a higher standard and points levied against their license are 1.5x the rate levied against a basic on non-commercial license. The proposal would have drivers operating in school zone also held to a higher standard.
The proposal submitted to the Legislative Analyst's Office is attached, (Bill Draft Request VC points.pdf).
2) B-4: Omnibus Student/Pedestrian/Cyclist Safety Legislation: With the aforementioned safety bills, staff has been working with a coalition of other staff and advocates. A number of safety proposals look to be moving ahead in 2015. Discussion regarding packaging all the bills, informally, as a Student/Pedestrian/Cyclist Safety Omnibus Legislative Package was discussed.
2) B-5: Automated Safety Enhancement (ASE): One legislative proposal that is likely to come forward in an omnibus bill would change state policy and statutes to clearly authorize the use of radar and cameras to issue speeding tickets. The Committee should discuss this proposal given that 1) Contra Costa County potentially has gains to achieve (see walk/bike rate citation below), 2) and it may be bundled with other bills of specific interest to the BOS. Attached is an advocacy document (Automated Safety Enforcement Fact Sheet.pdf) originally drafted for a San Francisco specific bill. The document is currently being redrafted with a statewide focus. Staff recommends the following be discussed by the Committee when reviewing the ASE proposal:
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Contra Costa County's Bicycle Trip Rate: Research on this issue found that Contra Costa County has the lowest total trips (total = all days and all trip types) by bicycle in the Bay Area. [1] Considering the abundance of superior bicycle facilities and the largest number of BART stations outside Alameda County there should be an opportunity to improve on this statistic, improved speed enforcement would help in this area.
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Additional Focus on Walk/Bike Encouragement: The proposal currently focuses on the prevention of injuries and death which is a worthwhile goal. Given the proposal came out of an intensely urban county that focus is even more understandable. However, in suburban areas additional focus should be added that addresses the fact that lower automobile speeds will encourage more people to walk and bike [2]. That isn't necessarily a primary concern in urban areas given 1) the inherently more walkable nature of the land development pattern typically results in high walk/bike rates, and 2) the substantial congestion and superior transit service, both typical in dense urban areas, also strongly encourages walking and cycling. Suburban areas don't typically have these characteristics and would benefit from both injury/fatality reduction and the resulting, effective student walking/cycling encouragement.
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Increase the specificity of the proposal: Discussions on a legislative proposal contemplated blanket authorization. Staff recommends the County advocate for targeted authorization. The approach would be similar to our school zone expansion proposal which has garnered significant support, a locally conducted engineering and traffic survey would be necessary to establish the need and specific area for ASE implementation.
[1] Metropolitan Transportation Commission, 2009, Regional Bicycle Plan for the San Francisco Bay Area.
[2] U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Barriers to Children Walking to or from School United States 2004, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report September 30, 2005. These findings are also correlated at the local (CCTA SR2S Survey Data), state, national and international level.
3) FEDERAL
The current extension for the primary federal surface transportation funding authorization (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century [MAP-21]) expires on May 31, 2015. On an almost daily basis there are new stories, comments and speculation from House and Senate leadership on how they plan to go about reauthorizing and funding the bill. At the time of the submission of this report there was no consensus or clear path forward. Staff will bring the most recent information to the Committee meeting for discussion.
2015 Delegation Listing
Senators
Diane Feinstein
Barbara Boxer
District Representatives
Mike Thompson - 5th District
Jerry NcNerney - 9th District
Mark DeSaulnier - 11th District
Other Bay Area Representatives
Jared Huffman - 2nd District
John Garamendi - 3rd District
Nancy Pelosi - 12th District
Barbara Lee - 13th District
Eric Swalwell - 15th District
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