Bill Text

Bill Information


Bill PDF |Add To My Favorites | print page

SB-670 State Air Resources Board: vehicle miles traveled: maps.(2023-2024)

SHARE THIS: share this bill in Facebook share this bill in Twitter
Date Published: 04/27/2023 09:00 PM
SB670:v97#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Senate  April 27, 2023
Amended  IN  Senate  March 20, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 670

Introduced by Senator Allen

February 16, 2023

An act to add Section 39611 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to transportation.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 670, as amended, Allen. State Air Resources Board: vehicle miles traveled: maps.
Existing law designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency with the primary responsibility for the control of vehicular air pollution and the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. Existing law imposes various requirements related to transportation planning, including a requirement that certain transportation planning agencies prepare and adopt regional transportation plans directed at achieving a coordinated and balanced regional transportation system. Existing law requires each regional transportation plan to include, among other things, a sustainable communities strategy prepared by each metropolitan planning organization, as specified, which is designed to achieve certain targets for 2020 and 2035 established by the state board for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles and light trucks in the region.
This bill would require the state board, in consultation with the Office of Planning and Research and the Department of Transportation, to develop a methodology for assessing and spatially representing light-duty vehicle miles traveled and to develop maps accordingly to display average light-duty vehicle miles traveled per capita in the state at the local, regional, and statewide level, as provided. The bill would require the state board to adopt the methodology no later than January 1, 2025, and to publish the maps no later than 6 months after the methodology is adopted. The bill would require the state board to update the methodology and maps at least once every 4 years. The bill would require the state board to make the methodology and the maps publicly available on its internet website. Under certain circumstances, the bill would require the state board, in consultation with the Office of Planning and Research, to provide technical assistance with regard to the usage and interpretation of the statewide map to a local agency requesting assistance.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Without a reduction in total vehicle miles traveled (VMT), it is unlikely that the state will achieve its climate and equity goals.
(b) In order to reduce VMT sufficiently to meet those goals, it is important to know how much VMT a project will generate.
(c) Accurate mapping of household generated household-generated light-duty VMT provides for the opportunity to inform efforts to mitigate those effects to enable the state to grow while balancing the pressures imposed by climate change.
(d) Additionally, in an effort to assist local governments with implementing Senate Bill 743 (Chapter 386 of the Statutes of 2013) and to keep in line with the goals of Senate Bill 375 (Chapter 728 of the Statutes of 2008), VMT mapping of light-duty vehicles conducted by the state would serve as a potential source of substantial evidence when determining the significance of transportation impacts for new developments.
(e) The availability of statewide VMT will also inform state and local planning decisions for where best to target housing and infrastructure investments.

(f)The availability of maps published pursuant to this act will also help to achieve the objective set forth in the 2022 scoping plan adopted by the State Air Resources Board pursuant to Section 38561 of the Health and Safety Code of reducing per capita VMT by at least 25 percent below 2019 levels by 2030.

SEC. 2.

 Section 39611 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

39611.
 (a) (1) (A) The state board, in consultation with the Office of Planning and Research and the Department of Transportation, shall develop a methodology for assessing and spatially representing light-duty vehicle miles traveled and shall develop maps accordingly to display light-duty average vehicle miles traveled per capita in the state at the local, regional, and statewide level.
(B) For the purposes of displaying “regional light-duty vehicle miles traveled per capita” pursuant to this paragraph, a “region” is the entirety of incorporated and unincorporated areas governed by a multicounty or single-county metropolitan planning organization, or the entirety of the incorporated and unincorporated areas of an individual county that is not part of a metropolitan planning organization.
(2) The maps developed pursuant to paragraph (1) shall use the best available information, including, but not limited to, the technical advisory relating to vehicle miles traveled adopted by the Office of Planning and Research.
(3) (A) In developing maps pursuant to paragraph (1), the state board shall work with local agencies to assess whether regional maps created by local agencies that show average vehicle miles traveled can be incorporated into the maps developed pursuant to paragraph (1).
(B) If the state board determines that a regional map assessed pursuant to subparagraph (A) is consistent with the methodology for accounting vehicle miles traveled developed pursuant to paragraph (1), the state board shall incorporate that map into the maps developed pursuant to paragraph (1).
(b) (1) The state board shall adopt the methodology for assessing and spatially representing vehicle miles traveled resulting from the development of a project no later than January 1, 2025.
(2) The state board shall publish the maps developed pursuant to subdivision (a) no later than six months after it adopts the methodology pursuant to paragraph (1).
(3) The state board shall update the methodology and maps at least once every four years.
(c) The state board shall make both the methodology and the maps publicly available on its internet website.
(d) If a local agency wishes to use the statewide map published pursuant to this section to help determine transportation impacts resulting from a project, the state board, in consultation with the Office of Planning and Research, shall provide technical assistance with regard to the usage and interpretation of the map, upon request of the local agency.