Senate Standing Committee on Transportation

The Senate Transportation Committee will come to order. Good afternoon and welcome. Please call our authors that come to the committee. We have a total of 15 measures on today's agenda. First, a few housekeeping items.

We're gonna allow, two primary witnesses each to support the opposition. Each witness will have two minutes. An additional witnesses will have a limit yourself to name, affiliation, and your position on the bill. We'll be hearing bills on agenda and file order, and we'll be entertaining motions on bills at their

appropriate time once we have established a quorum. We have seven measures on the consent today but we can't take those up because we don't have a quorum.

And so I do see an author that would if you would like to entertain, come in here as a as a a subcommittee. We would love for you to come up, Senator Nilo, for our audience is file item number two, SB 953 by Senator Nilo. Senator, you're welcome to open when you're ready.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And I appreciate getting up as early as I can because I have another committee meeting going on currently

We all do that.

I need to get back to. So I am here, if I can get my pages separated, To present SB 953, which address addresses a serious gap in California law. When a driver causes a death through vehicular manslaughter and then receives mental health diversion,

that conduct will have absolutely no reflection on their driving record. This bill ensures that even after diversion, the underlying conduct remains recognized for what it is a major driving risk.

Under current laws, a speeding ticket can now have a greater reflection on a driver's driving record than killing somebody with a car.

A dismissal after diversion does not change the fact that a fatality occurred. By not sharing this information with the DMV, the DMV cannot do its job of determining who poses a risk and who does not.

The CalMatters article, which I have here, licensed to kill series documented systemic failures in California's driver accountability system and found that dangerous drivers repeatedly avoided consequences and oversight.

DMV records often failed to reflect serious risk patterns, and many individuals involved in fatal crashes remained legally on the road.

The article, points out this is a serious issue where California has allowed drivers with dangerous histories to continue driving.

SB 953 directly responds to this failure by ensuring fatal conduct is captured in the DMV point system, preventing risk from being hidden behind diversion outcomes. This bill does not impact one's criminal penalties.

The bill only applies two points to a driving record in vehicular manslaughter cases, and judges still retain full discretion to grant diversion. It's long been the case that vehicular manslaughter offenses result in the addition excuse me.

It it has long been the case that vehicular manslaughter offenses result in additional two points on a driving record.

This bill does not create anything new. The DMV point system is designed to identify high risk drivers. Without points, these drivers now remain invisible to the system even after a fatal incident.

Families of victims expect the system will acknowledge the seriousness of the loss and take steps to prevent recurrence. To dismiss one's driving record dismisses the value of a lost life.

SB 953 affirms that a loss of life carries lasting weight. A death on our roads should never disappear from our records. I have two witnesses here with me today. Allison Lyman, the mother of Connor Lyman who was tragically lost on our roadways.

And Cody Boyles on behalf of the Association of Highway Patrolmen. Allison.

Two minutes each. Thank you for being here.

Sorry. Just checking. Okay. Thank you. My name is Allison Lyman. I'm here on behalf of my beautiful 23 year old son, Connor. I'm here to give Connor a voice that he no longer has and to give a voice to all the innocent lives taken by reckless drivers on our roads.

I'm here to ask you to save lives by voting yes on SB 953. Connor was senselessly killed by a reckless and negligent driver on April 23, 2025 in Elk Grove while coming home from the gym. We are nine days away from the one year of my son's death.

Connor was my only son. He was a devoted big brother. His little sister is here today. He was a classically trained pianist. He was so gifted.

He was teaching piano while attending college. He had dreams. I heard his music every day. The silence is now excruciating. I saw Connor's broken body in the hospital when I buried my child and I saw him in his casket.

The funeral home covered only his hands. His beautiful hands that had played piano nearly his entire life had been crushed. The violence of his death is something I will carry forever. Under California law, my son's death is a misdemeanor.

Because his killing is considered low level and nonviolent, the driver charged with taking his life is eligible for a diversion program, meaning they can avoid a conviction simply by completing coursework or community service.

There will be no record of Connor's death, no record of their crime on their criminal or driving record. As mentioned, CalMatters wrote about, Connor in their series License to Kill. They titled it When a Speeding Ticket Can Be Worse Than Killing Someone With Your Car in California and sadly this is correct.

At least with the speeding ticket, there are points on your record. The system fails families who have lost loved ones and in dangers every Californian each time these individuals get behind the wheel.

SB 953 is a necessary common sense reform. By adding two points, two DMV points when a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter case is dismissed through diversion, the state will finally have a mechanism to track repeat dangerous drivers and hold them accountable. They do it again.

This is the heart of this bill, a way to track reckless drivers that have taken lives, human lives on our roads. Takes four points to suspend a license.

SB 953 does not overreach. It simply ensures that a fatality is not erased and the state is able to track repeat dangerous drivers. It will save lives. Please support SB953. Thank you for hearing Connor's story.

Thank you and condolences in the memory of Connor. Thank you for being here. Next witness next witness.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, Members. Thank you, Mr. Chair, Members. Cody Boyles on behalf of the California Association of Highway Patrolmen, which represents nearly 16,000 active and retired, CHP officers. I would like to thank Senator Nilo, for, bringing this bill forward.

Under current law, driver who commits a misdemeanor, vehicular manslaughter, but completes diversion, can avoid receiving the full two points on the record and as a result can avoid the full consequences of, what they have done.

SB 953 ensures that even in the case even if a case is dismissed for diversion, two points will still be applied to that individual's driving record. This matters because the point system, while not is not about a punishment, but is designed to identify high risk, drivers and keep them off the road and hopefully

avoid these types of horrific act accidents, in the future. CHP officers understand better than anyone that vehicular manslaughter is not a minor mistake, and it has life altering and devastating consequences for victims and for their families. It's for these reasons that we strongly support SB 953.

Thank you for being here. Any witnesses, for identification purposes to, voice for support?

Good afternoon, Vice Chair and Committee. Yeah. Strong support of this bill, Mark from Streets for all strong support of the bill, and appreciate the author bringing it forward. Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Good afternoon. Iria Rapitan on behalf of AAA Northern California and Southern California in support.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Corey Salzillo on behalf of the California State Sheriffs Association in support.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. Mike Sharif with Fanshawe Government Affairs on behalf of the Safe California Roads Coalition in support.

Thank you.

Christina Thompson on behalf of Connor Lopez. Strong support.

Thank you.

Christine Clinkenbeard, grandmother of Connor Lopez, and I'm in strong support of this bill.

Witnesses in opposition? Seeing none. Senator, would you like to close?

Thank you.

Yes. I would most appreciate an Aye vote and at the appropriate time when you have a quorum.

We will move this when we have a quorum. Thank you, Senator. Thank you for being here. Thank you. For folks in the audience, we'll just wait until we have a Member show up for a presentation presenting a bill. Thank you.

For the audience, we have a we have an author here. It's gonna be file item number 13, SB 1292 by Senator Richardson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's, you like that seat, You may have to pry you out of it. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members.

I would like to start by thanking the Chairman, Committee staff for working with me and my office to incorporate the amendments that strengthen the bill's language and clarifies the intent of this legislation. I am accepting officially those amendments.

Importantly, within those amendments, I want to highlight the narrowing scope of the bill to now be limited to only select cities such as Los Angeles, Long Beach, Inglewood, and others.

Parking curb space particularly in urban communities, downtown businesses, and residential districts are some of the most valuable and contested pieces of public right away across California.

Traditionally designed around short term parking and passenger pickup to maximize use. Parking space is now even further limited due to the additional vehicles and e-commerce deliveries, food delivery services, ride hailing, and emerging autonomous vehicle fleets.

In particular, commercial curb curbs need to have increased, I'm sorry. In particular, commercial curbs, need to, this isn't I'm sorry. It has increased rapidly over the past decade and is projected to grow substantially through 2030.

Yet, much of this use occurs without effective price monitoring, time limits, and worse compliance. So what we're saying there is that the curb, the use of curves is increasing. It's getting even more significant as we're looking towards 2030.

And if we don't look at ways to effectively, monitor that people are exceeding the time limits, we're not going to have available parking. As a result, double parking, blocked bike lanes, unsafe loading behaviors, and more have become more common in many communities.

Local governments currently lack the adequate authority, manpower, and tools to manage modern curb activity effectively. First, the rapid growth in the last lane delivery and on demand, on demand services have overwhelmed existing curb regulations.

Research from the Los Angeles Department of Transportation conducted under USDOT smart grant found that nearly half of all loading activity was non compliant. With vehicles overstaying posted time limits and crowding out legitimate loading needs.

Commercial vehicles paid for curb access less than five to less than 5% of the time undetermining, the turnover and the fairness that's needed of other people who need these spots.

Second, poor curb compliance creates measurable public harm. Double parking and illegal stopping reduces traffic speeds, increases congestion, blocks transit and bike lanes, and introduces significant safety risks for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers themselves.

These impacts are especially acute in dense commercial and residential districts near schools, hospitals, and transit hubs. Third, autonomous vehicles are now in the discussion.

Because AVs cannot receive traditional citations and do not interact with meters, cities and are unable to manage, cities are unable to manage AV curbs use in the same manner as they would with human driven vehicles.

This creates an enforcement inequity and limits city's ability to plan for the future in which autonomous vehicles may represent most of the parking curb users.

Under SB 1292, local government would have the authority if desired to adopt an an ordinance and or resolution authorizing the use of stationary cameras or sensors with clear public signage to manage parking curb activity at specific locations. I wanna re highlight that.

Again, it is the local government that have would have the ability through proper governing process, City Council meetings, and so on, to adopt a resolution. This is not a mandate, but simply giving them the opportunity to do so.

Eligible locations including passenger and commercial loading zones, smart and zero emission delivery zones, bike lanes, non stopping zones, and crosswalks, all would potentially be in play and could benefit.

Participation is entirely optional and each jurisdiction retains full control over over where and how systems are deployed. And frankly, whether they continue at all if they find them to be helpful. Importantly, SB 1292 requires human review of all citations.

So we want people to understand we're not talking about doing away with parking enforcement. Parking enforcement individuals would still need to review the citations.

This would just give us the opportunity to make sure that more people who are misusing the zone area would in fact seek the, just punishment to say, hey, you can't just park here indefinitely.

Because frankly, we don't have enough parking officers throughout to monitor properly. Importantly, SB 1292, as said, requires human review of all citations.

This bill is designed to be a tool in the toolbox for parking enforcement, non substitute parking enforcers, not, excuse me, not substituting parking enforcers work, and that is expressed clearly throughout this bill.

Here with me today to speak in support of the bill is, Mark on behalf of Streets for All alongside Jordan Justice from Autonomous to provide, technical support. Excuse me. Jordan will be here to provide, technical support and additional questions if needed. With that, I'll pause.

Thank you. Thanks for being here. Two minutes each.

Good morning. Good afternoon, Vice Chair and Members. Maybe there we go. Good afternoon, vice chair and members. Mark Vukcevich from Streets for All sponsor the bill.

SB 1292 is a and and fundamentally a local control bill. It gives cities a tool that they increasingly need to manage a curb environment that has changed dramatically in a very short period of time.

As the birthday Senator mentioned, fifteen years ago, cities were not dealing with today's combination of Uber and Lyft pickups, app based food delivery, same day package delivery.

We're talking about three hour delivery, six hour delivery, same day delivery, you know, zero emission delivery zones, autonomous vehicles. But cities our cities are dealing with all of that right now.

In many in dense commercial corridors in downtown areas, the curb has become one of the most contested parts of the public right of way. Local governments should not be man forced to manage a curb, a 2026 curb with 2006 tools.

Cities know where their problems are. They know which commercial corridors are clogged by double parking, which loading zones are abused, which crosswalks and bike lane bike lanes are routinely blocked,

and which areas need better turnover, clearer rules, and more reliable enforcement. And SB 1292 gives them those tools to do that. And that matters for safety too, when crosswalks, bike lanes, and loading areas and no stopping zones are blocked, that results not just in

inconvenience, but an actual safety issue, a predictable safety issue. And it matters for small businesses and economic health of commercial districts.

When curbs are chaotic and loading loading zones are constantly blocked or misused, and when delivery pickups and short customer stops have no reliable place to happen, it is businesses and commercial downtowns that pay the price.

This bill gives a better way to keep curbs functioning and improve turnover and support deliveries to make busy commercial quarters work. Importantly, the bill moves forward out of this committee with a more tailored approach.

The amendments make it a measured pilot of a small number of cities the ability to use this modern tool. A number of those are Olympic cities, I'll note as well.

Lastly, I just wanna note that we won't, we don't want parking tickets, we want parking compliance, and we think that's what the bill's gonna fundamentally help them with. Yeah. We believe this bill matches the tools or gives tools for the moment, and we respectfully urge a Aye vote.

Thank you.

I'm just here to to answer any technical or operational questions. I'm Trevor Justice, CEO of Automotive.

Thank you for being here. Any other witnesses for identification purposes for support?

Good morning. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and Members. Matthew Seiverling on behalf of the California Mobility and Parking Association in support. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr. Vice Chair. I'm a bit of a tweener position, but with the committee amendments, the California Trucking Association is gonna be neutral on the bill. Just wanna thank the author and sponsors for working with us and wish you author a happy birthday.

Thank you.

Oh, happy birthday. Yeah. Oh, and there you go.

There you go.

Any other witness to support? Witnesses in opposition? Seeing no questions. Oh, witness to opposition. Go ahead.

I'm sorry.

Happy birthday, by the way. Tracy Rosenberg on behalf of Oakland Privacy, and I just wanted to say that we thank the author and the committee for the amendments. I'm optimistic that we will be able to lift our opposition down the line, but we are still taking a look. But thank you.

Thank you for being here. Seeing nothing else. I oh, go ahead. Senator Archuleta.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for bringing this bill forward. Do you realize that three of my cities in my district are supportive? That we're we're hoping that the entire committee will approve.

But also I have to point out California contract cities, City of Norwalk, City of Pico Rivera, and the city of, of course, Los Angeles, but, Norwalk, Pico Rivera, and the surrounding areas.

So I would like to point out to everyone that, the technology that we have, this will just keep traffic moving and keep the businesses to be able to receive the clientele they need. And that's why, contract cities is for and I think it'll really expedite things.

And I know it'll be posted that has so important that it's posted. And then for reviewing, then it'll be done if there's an issue. And so I I think it's a win win all the way around.

I would like to be a cosponsor if you wish. Yeah. I'd love to. And with that, I'll move it at the appropriate time.

Thank you, Senator. I believe I missed someone, coming forward. I'm sorry.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's my my fault.

It's actually on me. Andrew Antwih. Apologize for the late timing, but I hope, the committee will indulge, expressions of support on behalf of the city of Santa Monica and the city of West Hollywood.

Thank you for being here. I really appreciate it. I go ahead, Senator.

Thank you for this bill. And I appreciate hearing, information from the supporters, supporting testimony. I just wanted to share that, there's nothing more frustrating and irritating as a bike rider than having the bike lane be used as a parking assist lane.

And that happens all the time when the way that we design our streets is that the people riding the bicycle are right next to those who are trying to parallel park. And in really busy areas, it becomes a big problem.

Because if they're speeding traffic, you have to come to a full stop or swerve out into traffic. So being able to use tools like this to, actually enforce the laws to say actually you can't use this as a parking assist lane or a part or, you know, temporary parking to run-in to drop things

off or all the different things. And as I run a book club through my Senate districts, the District 38 book call club called Our California. And we're reading right now Paved Paradise. And the book is How Parking Explains the World.

And one of the things that's so interesting in the book is a description of how many times people are trying to find parking and they're they're stopping in the traffic lanes and it's creating enormous amounts of congestion, especially in really dense cities.

So, you know, the suburban cities are maybe a little bit different. But in really dense cities, it can substantially affect the experience of businesses and being downtown and people who are trying to use the sidewalk, the streets, the bike lanes in other ways.

So I appreciate looking at the the tools that we have and trying to to move us toward a system where we are more efficient. We are u using the areas that have been have been designated in the ways that they should be.

It's just basically a modernization. So I wanna applaud the author for doing it and thank you again.

Thank you.

And I'll move the bill when appropriate.

Thank you.

So, I just wanna say, coming in, I was leaning against it but I really like the amendments and the fact that you're doing a pilot program. Let's see how it works moving forward. So you'll have my support when at the appropriate time, this comes up.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Means a lot. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank Would you like to close?

I'd like to respectfully ask for an Aye vote on SB 1292.

Thank you. Thanks for being here.

Sure. Thank you.