AB 378: State Highway 101 Route corridor.
- Session Year: 2015-2016
- House: Assembly
- Latest Version Date: 2016-01-04
Existing law provides that the Department of Transportation has full possession and control of the state highway system. Existing law imposes various requirements for the development and implementation of transportation projects.
This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that will enable responsible local, regional, and state agencies to substantially improve mobility in the State Highway 101 corridor. The bill would make findings and declarations in that regard. require the department, in coordination with the City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County and the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, to create an integrated corridor management team to consider transportation projects addressing congestion relief in the State Highway Route 101 corridor located within the County of San Mateo.
Existing law provides that the Department of Transportation has full possession and control of the state highway system. Existing law imposes various requirements for the development and implementation of transportation projects.
This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that will enable responsible local, regional, and state agencies to substantially improve mobility in the State Highway 101 corridor. The bill would make findings and declarations in that regard.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a)The State Highway Route 101 corridor, the 48 miles between San Francisco and San Jose, is the most economically productive and important highway corridor in California, with rapidly growing employment and tax receipts that greatly benefit workers, small business owners, local government budgets, and the state.
(b)Transportation capacity in the corridor is grossly insufficient to serve the growing number of commuters, leading to heavy and growing traffic congestion on State Highway Route 101 and serious overcrowding on Caltrain. Highway congestion is costly and inconvenient for commuters, local residents, goods movers, buses, and emergency responders.
(c)In order to sustain the economic engine of the State Highway Route 101 corridor and the quality of life for local residents, swift and decisive action by transportation agencies is needed to relieve commuter congestion. It is common for transportation improvement projects to take 10 to 15 years to study, fund, design, and construct; however, if commuting conditions are not improved on a much shorter timeline, economic prospects for the corridor will be jeopardized.
(d)A coordinated response from county, regional, and state transportation agencies can improve State Highway Route 101 corridor operations more effectively than is possible by these agencies acting individually. A coordinated agency response that integrates carpool or express lane development and operations, adaptive ramp metering technology and operations, and ridesharing can deliver meaningful commuter relief within a five year period and can serve as a model that other highway corridors in the state can emulate.
SEC. 2.It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that will provide such powers, responsibilities, funding and financing mechanisms, innovative project delivery authority, and governance structures as may be necessary, convenient, and beneficial to enable responsible local, regional, and state agencies to substantially improve mobility as soon as possible, but no later than within five years, in the State Highway 101 corridor in the City and County of San Francisco, the County of San Mateo, and the County of Santa Clara.
SEC. 2.Section 133 is added to the Streets and Highways Code, to read:133.(a)The department, in coordination with the City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County and the San Mateo County Transportation Authority if they choose to participate, shall create an integrated corridor management team to consider transportation projects addressing congestion relief in the State Highway Route 101 corridor.
(b)For purposes of this section, State Highway Route 101 corridor means the segment of State Highway Route 101 and connecting highways, including, but not limited to, State Highway Routes 82, 92, and 380, located within the County of San Mateo.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a)The State Highway 101 corridor, the 48 miles between San Francisco and San Jose, is the most economically productive and important highway corridor in California, with rapidly growing employment and tax receipts that greatly benefit workers, small business owners, local government budgets, and the state.
(b)Transportation capacity in the corridor is grossly insufficient to serve the growing number of commuters, leading to heavy and growing traffic congestion on State Highway 101 and serious overcrowding on Caltrain. Highway congestion is costly and inconvenient for commuters, local residents, goods movers, buses, and emergency responders.
(c)In order to sustain the economic engine of the State Highway 101 corridor and the quality of life for local residents, swift and decisive action by transportation agencies is needed to relieve commuter congestion. It is common for transportation improvement projects to take 10 to 15 years to study, fund, design, and construct; however, if commuting conditions are not improved on a much shorter timeline, economic prospects for the corridor will be jeopardized.
(d)A coordinated response from county, regional, and state transportation agencies can improve State Highway 101 corridor operations more effectively than is possible by these agencies acting individually. A coordinated agency response that integrates carpool or express lane development and operations, adaptive ramp metering technology and operations, and ridesharing can deliver meaningful commuter relief within a five year period and can serve as a model that other highway corridors in the state can emulate.
SEC. 2.It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that will provide such powers, responsibilities, funding and financing mechanisms, innovative project delivery authority, and governance structures as may be necessary, convenient, and beneficial to enable responsible local, regional, and state agencies to substantially improve mobility as soon as possible, but no later than within five years, in the State Highway 101 corridor in the City and County of San Francisco, the County of San Mateo, and the County of Santa Clara.
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Date
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Status
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|---|---|
| Feb 18, 2015 | Read first time. To print. |
| Feb 19, 2015 | From printer. May be heard in committee March 21. |
| Dec 9, 2015 | Referred to Com. on TRANS. |
| Jan 4, 2016 | From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on TRANS. Read second time and amended. |
| Jan 4, 2016 | Re-referred to Com. on TRANS. |
| Jan 11, 2016 | In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author. |
| Jan 31, 2016 | Died pursuant to Article IV, Sec. 10(c) of the Constitution. |
| Feb 1, 2016 | From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. |
This list shows positions taken on this bill by organizations on the date displayed, which is linked to the original source.
Positions by individuals are not included.
Date of Hearing: January 11, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Jim Frazier, Chair
ABPCA Bill Id:AB 378 (
Author:Mullin) – As Amended Ver:January 4, 2016
SUBJECT: State Highway 101 corridor
SUMMARY: Directs the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), in coordination with others, to develop an integrated corridor management team to address traffic congestion in the State Route (SR) 101 corridor located within the County of San Mateo. Specifically, this bill:
- Makes legislative findings and declarations regarding the economic importance of the
SR 101 corridor between San Jose and San Francisco, the inadequacy of the transportation capacity within the corridor, and the need for "swift and decisive" action by transportation agencies to relieve commuter congestion within the corridor.
- Further finds and declares that the SR 101 corridor can operate more effectively with a coordinated response from transportation agencies within the corridor to integrate carpool or express lane development and operations, adaptive ramp metering technology and operations, and ridesharing.
- Directs Caltrans to create an integrated corridor management team, along with the City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County and the San Mateo County Transportation Authority if these two agencies choose to participate, to consider transportation projects to address congestion relief in the SR 101 corridor, including connecting SRs 82, 92, and 380 within the County of San Mateo.
EXISTING LAW:
- Vests Caltrans with the responsibility to design, construct, operate, and maintain the state highway system.
- Prohibits the state budget from including specific appropriations for specific transportation projects, and provides that the Legislature should not enact legislation containing specific individual transportation projects.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS: AB 378 is intended to focus transportation resources to address congestion on the SR 101 corridor and connecting corridors in San Mateo County. According to the author, the SR 101 corridor "is the most economically productive region in California, connecting the rapidly growing economies of San Mateo County, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley." Furthermore, the author states, "The growth in this region has generated significant tax receipts for the State budget, but is strained by an increasingly large number of commuters flooding the area's highways, roads, and transit systems."
Congestion in the region is, in fact, increasing. According to a just-release report by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) from its Vital Signs performance-monitoring initiative, freeway congestion around the Bay Area is increasing faster than either population or employment. MTC reports that, since 2000, per-commuter congestion delay has risen by 23% while the region's population has grown by 10%.
SR 101 in San Mateo County may be congested; however, elsewhere in the region traffic congestion is much worst. According to MTC's Vital Signs, 40% of the all Bay Area freeway congestion is on the region's top ten congested corridors. SR 101 in San Mateo County is not among the top ten most congested corridors.
Still, the author believes the SR 101 corridor in San Mateo merits unique consideration given the economic prosperity the corridor brings to the state. AB 378 directs Caltrans to establish an integrated corridor management team, in coordination with the City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County and the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, if those agencies choose to participate. The team would be expected to consider transportation projects on SR 101 and also on connecting routes SRs 82, 92, and 380, all located within San Mateo County.
The integrated corridor management approach is an emerging, collaborative approach to managing transportation corridors. Integrated corridor management looks comprehensively at an entire transportation network - including freeways, arterial streets, transit, parking, travel demand, agency collaboration, and more - and considers all opportunities to move people and goods in the most efficient and safest way possible. Rather than focusing on improving only specific elements such as freeways or transit, an integrated corridor management approach considers the corridor as a total system to be managed as an integrated and cohesive whole; it seeks to address the corridor’s overall transportation needs rather than the needs of particular elements or agencies alone.
Caltrans has embarked on a pilot program to develop the integrated corridor management approach to manage traffic operations. Its Connected Corridors Program represents a significant departure from traditional transportation management practice and promises to fundamentally change the way the state manages its transportation corridors for years to come. The pilot is led by the Caltrans in partnership with Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology (PATH) at the University of California, Berkeley. Caltrans started pilot deployments within the Connected Corridor Program on Interstate 210 in the San Gabriel Valley near Los Angeles and on Interstate 80 between the Carquinez Bridge and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The department expects to expand the Connected Corridors Program to multiple corridors throughout California over the next ten years. (In addition to the two pilot corridors under Caltrans' Connected Corridor Program, the San Diego Association of Governments is piloting one of two integrated corridors chosen as part of a national pilot program to study the effectiveness of this traffic operations approach.)
When it began the Connected Corridor Program, Caltrans originally evaluated five corridors, including the SR 101 corridor in San Mateo County. Corridors were evaluated based on criteria such as levels of congestion, available alternative routes and travel modes through the corridor, willing partners, and available technology already in the corridor. In the end, Interstate 210 and Interstate 80 were thought to offer the greatest potential benefits of the corridors evaluated.
Some of the benefits that the Connected Corridors Program expects to realize include:
- Reduced congestion and improved mobility, travel-time reliability, safety, and system efficiency.
- Better use of existing capacities across all transportation modes (car, bus, train, bicycle, pedestrian, etc.) to increase the throughput of vehicles, people, and goods with minimal or no new infrastructure.
- Improved availability and quality of data on travel conditions in the corridor to better understand corridor behavior and improve performance.
- Timely, accurate information for corridor users so they can make informed choices about when, how, and by what route they travel.
By directing Caltrans to establish an integrated corridor management team for SR 101 in San Mateo County, the author seeks to expedite improved operations in the SR 101 corridor.
AB 378 is supported by the Bay Area Council and Google. Writing in support of the bill, Google suggests that AB 378 is necessary to address the "untenable" traffic congestion in the SR 101 corridor. Citing statistics from MTC's Vital Signs, Google notes that congestion has increased nearly 40% from 2010 levels, averaging 2.7 minutes per commuter in 2014. Google suggests AB 378 will "encourage and support the state-level initiative needed to help ensure the Peninsula continues to remain a dynamic driver of California's economy and a great place to live."
Committee concerns: The committee has the following concerns with the bill:
- AB 378 is essentially a project bill, the likes of which are prohibited under existing law. The Legislature initiated this prohibition to ensure decisions regarding the use of transportation funds were made strategically, not politically, within the context of thoughtful planning, engineering, and prioritization. AB 378 essentially directs Caltrans to spend resources in San Mateo County, regardless the relative need, feasibility, cost, or priority of that effort.
- This bill is not necessary. Caltrans could administratively choose to develop an integrated corridor management team for SR 101 in San Mateo County, just as it did for the two pilot projects within the Connected Corridor Program. However, integrated corridor management teams involve considerable staff and technology resources, among other things. To implement AB 378, the department would most likely have to pull resources from other corridors, projects, or programs or secure additional funds, as it did for the two pilot projects.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Bay Area Council
San Mateo County Transportation Authority
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by: Janet Dawson / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093
Bill Author
Bill Co-Author(s):