SB 670: 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.