Official Summary Text
AB 2015, as amended, Wicks.
Navigation programs: slow streets.
Department of Transportation: third-party navigation applications: study and report.
Existing law establishes the Department of Transportation and vests it with full possession and control of the state highway system.
This bill would require the department, in consultation with the Transportation Agency and local authorities, to conduct a comprehensive study on the impact of third-party navigation applications on the state highway system and local street and road networks. The bill would require the study to analyze how third-party navigation applications affect congestion displacement, local infrastructure, safety metrics, and emergency response, as provided. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2028, to submit the study, and a report of related policy recommendations for regulatory or legislative action to improve
the alignment between third-party navigation applications and state and local traffic management goals, to the relevant fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2032.
Existing law authorizes local authorities, for those highways under their jurisdiction, to adopt rules and regulations by ordinance or resolution on various matters, including prohibiting the use of particular highways by certain vehicles and prohibiting entry to, or exit from, or both, from any street by means of islands, curbs, traffic barriers, or other roadway design features to implement the circulation element of an adopted general plan, as specified. Existing law also authorizes a local authority to adopt an ordinance to implement a slow streets program, which may include closures to vehicular traffic or through vehicular traffic of neighborhood local streets with connections to citywide bicycle networks, destinations that are within walking distance, or green space.
This bill would additionally authorize local authorities to adopt
rules and regulations by ordinance or resolution to prohibit any person, business, or other entity having ownership or control of a navigation program from providing directions to a driver that would include any of the streets in a slow streets program, and would require the local authority to notify the person, business, or other entity having ownership or control of a navigation program of the streets in a slow streets program.