This bill designates May 2026 as Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month in California. It affects state agencies and organizations that typically host public awareness campaigns or educational events. The measure requires no changes to existing laws or regulations; it simply establishes a specific timeframe for promoting motorcycle safety. By creating this designated month, the state provides a formal opportunity to focus public attention on rider safety without altering current legal requirements.
Existing law prohibits a person from driving, moving, or leaving standing upon a highway, or in an offstreet public parking facility, any motor vehicle, trailer, semitrailer, pole or pipe dolly, or logging dolly, unless it is registered and the appropriate fees have been paid, except as specified. Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles, upon registering a vehicle, to issue to the owner license plates that identify the vehicles for which they are issued for the period of their validity, as specified. Existing law also requires a motorized bicycle to display a special license plate issued by the department. Existing law authorizes a city or county to adopt a bicycle licensing ordinance or resolution, authorizes the licensing agency, by ordinance or resolution, to adopt rules and regulations for the collection of license fees, as specified, and sets the fee for each new bicycle license and registration certificate at a sum of no more than $4 per year. Existing law defines an electric bicycle as a bicycle equipped with fully operable pedals and an electric motor of less than 750 watts, and classifies electric bicycles into 3 classes with different restrictions. This bill would require class 2 electric bicycles and class 3 electric bicycles to be registered with the department and to display a special license plate issued by the department. The bill would require the department to adopt regulations to implement these requirements, and would make a person operating a class 2 or class 3 electric bicycle in violation of these requirements guilty of an infraction punishable by specified fines. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would create the Electric Bicycle Registration Fund in the State Treasury, require all moneys received by the department pursuant to these provisions to be deposited in the fund, and require all moneys in the fund to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for the administration of these provisions. The bill would also appropriate an unspecified sum of moneys from the General Fund to the Electric Bicycle Registration Fund as a loan for purposes of administering these provisions, as specified. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law authorizes the operation of an autonomous vehicle on public roads for testing purposes by a driver who possesses the proper class of license for the type of vehicle operated if specified requirements are satisfied. Existing law prohibits the operation of an autonomous vehicle on public roads until the manufacturer submits an application to the Department of Motor Vehicles, as specified, and that application is approved. Existing law requires the department to adopt regulations setting forth requirements for the submission and approval of an application, including, among other things, any testing, equipment, and performance standards the department concludes are necessary to ensure the safe operation of autonomous vehicles on public roads, as specified. Existing law authorizes a peace officer, as defined, to issue a notice of autonomous vehicle noncompliance upon observing an alleged violation of the Vehicle Code or upon observing an alleged violation of a local traffic ordinance adopted pursuant to the Vehicle Code by an autonomous vehicle while the autonomous technology is engaged. This bill would require a citation for a traffic violation by a level 4 or 5 autonomous vehicle to be issued to the manufacturer of the autonomous technology if a traffic violation was committed while either the vehicle did not have a person in the driver's seat or the vehicle had a person in the driver's seat and the autonomous technology was engaged. The bill would authorize those citations to be issued by first-class mail. The bill would require a citation to be issued to the driver of an autonomous vehicle of any level if a traffic violation was committed while there was a person in the driver's seat and the autonomous technology was not engaged. The bill would require a citation to be issued to the driver of a level 3 autonomous vehicle if a traffic violation was committed while there was a person in the driver's seat and the autonomous technology was engaged. The bill would authorize the driver to, as a defense, raise that the autonomous technology was responsible for the traffic violation. The bill would require the citation to be issued to the manufacturer of the autonomous technology if the court determines that a level 3 autonomous vehicle was the cause of the traffic violation. The bill would authorize the holder of the testing permit or deployment permit to contest a citation or penalty.
Existing law requires, beginning on or before July 1, 2028, the Department of Transportation, in consultation with the State Department of Public Health and in collaboration with impacted local governments, to incorporate suicide deterrent considerations in the updates of applicable guidance documents, as provided. This bill would require the Department of Transportation to additionally develop and maintain, beginning on or before July 1, 2029, a set of preapproved suicide prevention safety-barrier designs that local governments may use to install suicide prevention barriers, as provided.
Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue special license plates or distinguishing placards to disabled veterans for purposes of certain parking privileges and fee exemptions. Commencing January 1, 2027, existing law exempts, except as specified, a vehicle that is owned by a disabled veteran, a former American prisoner of war, or a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient or a Purple Heart recipient, or the surviving spouse of a former American prisoner of war or Congressional Medal of Honor or Purple Heart recipient, who has elected to retain special license plates, that is of a type subject to registration under the Vehicle Code, and that is not used for hire, compensation, or profit, from certain fees imposed pursuant to the Vehicle Code and a vehicle license fee imposed for the privilege of operating specified vehicles. Existing law defines "vehicle" for purposes of these provisions as a passenger motor vehicle, a motorcycle, or a commercial motor vehicle of less than 8,001 pounds unladen weight. This bill would instead define a vehicle for purposes of the above-described provisions as a passenger motor vehicle, a motorcycle, or a commercial motor vehicle of less than 10,000 pounds unladen weight.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. If a lead agency determines that a project will have a significant transportation impact, existing law authorizes the lead agency to mitigate the transportation impact to a less than significant level by helping to fund or otherwise facilitating housing or related infrastructure projects, including by contributing an amount, to be determined pursuant to guidance issued by the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, to the Transit-Oriented Development Implementation Fund for purposes of the Transit-Oriented Development Implementation Program. Existing law makes those moneys available to the Department of Housing and Community Development, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purpose of awarding funding for affordable housing or related infrastructure projects under the program in accordance with specified priorities. On or before July 1, 2026, and at least once every 3 years thereafter, existing law requires the office, in consultation with other state agencies, to issue guidance related to the implementation of these provisions, as provided. This bill would authorize a lead agency for a land use project to require an applicant to contribute to the Transit-Oriented Development Implementation Fund if certain cost conditions are met and the department and the office have validated the reductions in vehicle miles traveled that are attributable to the project, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law prohibits a person from operating a commercial motor vehicle unless that person has in their immediate possession a valid commercial driver's license of the appropriate class. Existing law requires a person to pass a knowledge test and driving test for the operation of a commercial motor vehicle that complies with minimum federal standards, as specified, before being issued a commercial driver's license. This bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles, before issuing or renewing a commercial driver's license, to verify the applicant's lawful presence in the United States, as specified. The bill would require the department to revoke any commercial driver's license issued to a person subsequently determined to be unlawfully present in the United States, as specified.
The Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Act establishes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and prescribes the commission's authorities, duties, and responsibilities pertaining to energy matters, including the provision of independent oversight and analysis of the transportation fuels markets for the protection of consumers. Existing law requires the commission to submit an assessment to the Legislature, on or before January 1, 2024, and every 3 years thereafter, regarding transportation fuels in the state. Existing law requires that the first assessment submitted after January 1, 2026, evaluate the cost and supply impacts of allowing the sale of gasoline with alternative specifications to support a reliable and affordable supply of transportation fuels in California, and, if the evaluation finds that allowing the sale of gasoline with alternative specifications is likely to support a reliable and affordable supply of transportation fuels in California, requires the commission, in coordination with the State Air Resources Board, to recommend a strategy to facilitate the sale of gasoline with those alternative specifications that considers, among other things, the use of a fee associated with the sale of gasoline with those alternative specifications to mitigate for any increase in emissions. This bill would require the commission to triennially submit that assessment on or before July 1, rather than January 1, and would require that the commission's recommended strategy's discussion of that fee include recommendations regarding the appropriate fee amount to protect consumers from price impacts and avoid market disruptions. Existing law requires the commission to consider ways to manage necessary refinery turnarounds and maintenance that would protect the health and safety of employees, local communities, and the public, and minimize the impact of maintenance-related production losses on fuel prices. Existing law authorizes the commission, by regulation, to impose requirements governing the timing of turnaround and maintenance, and requires that those regulations include criteria that are required to be met before a refinery commences a turnaround or maintenance event, including the refiner making resupply plans or other arrangements sufficient to ensure that the loss of production during the turnaround or maintenance event does not adversely affect the California transportation fuels market. This bill would expressly provide that those resupply plans or other arrangements may include the sale of gasoline that meets alternative specifications, as provided. Existing law requires the state board to adopt and implement motor vehicle emission standards, in-use performance standards, and motor vehicle fuel specifications for the control of air contaminants and sources of air pollution, as provided. Existing law authorizes the state board to grant variances from gasoline specifications adopted by the state board and to impose fees and conditions on those variances, as provided. Existing law requires that the revenues from those variance fees, except as provided, be transmitted to the Treasurer for deposit into the High Polluter Repair or Removal Account and makes those revenues available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to implement a program for accelerated retirement of light-duty vehicles to achieve specified emission reductions. This bill would instead require those revenues to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to implement or fund a program for accelerated replacement of light-duty vehicles manufactured before 2004, or that are at least 20 years old, with cleaner and more efficient motor vehicles. The bill would require the commission to adopt regulations specifying the circumstances under which sellers of gasoline are required to apply for and make use of a variance, as provided. The bill would require those regulations to be adopted and implemented for the purpose of protecting consumers from price impacts associated with supply disruptions, as provided. The bill would require the state board to consider amendments to the variance process, as provided. This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIIIA of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature.
Existing law prescribes the procedures by which a proposed ordinance may be submitted to the governing board of a district by an initiative measure. These procedures do not apply to specified districts, including a district formed under a law that does not provide a procedure for elections. This bill would authorize the voters of any district that has authority to impose a transactions and use tax for transportation purposes to impose a retail transactions and use tax by an initiative measure. The bill would prohibit the initiative tax from exceeding the maximum authorized rate for a tax imposed by an ordinance enacted by the governing body of the district, and the bill would require the initiative measure to contain all spending limitations and substantive accountability standards applicable to a tax imposed by an ordinance enacted by the governing body. To the extent the bill would increase the duties of county elections officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
AB 117 is a placeholder bill expressing the Legislature's intent to enact statutory changes concerning the Budget Act of 2025. This bill is an initial step in the annual state budget process, signaling that specific financial and policy adjustments will be detailed in subsequent legislation.
