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AB-2015 • 2026

Department of Transportation: third-party navigation applications: study and report.

Department of Transportation: third-party navigation applications: study and report.

Active

The official status still shows this bill as active or still awaiting another formal step.

Sponsor
Wicks
Last action
Official status
Senate - Appropriations
Effective date
Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

The official text states the bill 'passed both chambers and reached final enrollment,' but does not confirm if it has been signed by the Governor or become law yet.

Study on Navigation Apps and Rules for Slow Streets

This law requires the Department of Transportation to study how navigation apps affect traffic and allows local governments to tell these app owners not to route drivers through streets in slow street programs.

What This Bill Does

  • Requires the Department of Transportation, with help from other agencies and local authorities, to study third-party navigation applications.
  • Asks for an analysis on how these apps affect traffic moving away from main roads (congestion displacement), road conditions, safety numbers, and emergency response times.
  • Sets a deadline of January 1, 2028, for the department to send its findings and policy ideas to state lawmakers.
  • Allows local governments to pass rules that stop navigation app owners from giving directions through streets in slow street programs.
  • Requires local authorities to tell navigation app owners which specific streets are part of a slow street program.

Who It Names or Affects

  • The California Department of Transportation
  • Local city and county governments that manage roads
  • Companies or people who own or control third-party navigation applications

Terms To Know

Third-party navigation application
A map app made by a private company, like Google Maps or Waze, that gives driving directions.
Slow streets program
Local rules that may close neighborhood roads to through traffic so they are safer for walking and biking.

Limits and Unknowns

  • The law does not say exactly how navigation apps must change their software, only that local governments can ask them to stop routing drivers on certain streets.
  • These new rules will end automatically on January 1, 2032.

Bill History

  1. California Legislative Information

    Senate - Appropriations

Official Summary Text

Department of Transportation: third-party navigation applications: study and report.