Update on Three SAFE-supported Bills on Speeding
SAFE celebrated the end of June with a trio of legislative successes. Three SAFE-supported bills related to speeding are heading to their next committees.
Here’s a quick rundown of what these bills aim to accomplish and why we at SAFE think they’re important steps in making our streets safer for everyone.
SB 1297: Malibu to establish automated speed enforcement
SB 1297, authored by Benjamin Allen and co-authored by Laura Friedman, Jacqui Irwin, and Henry Stern, is heading to the Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection on July 2nd.
The bill would allow the City of Malibu to establish an automated speed enforcement program to help the city address its deadly Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), one of the deadliest highways in California and the site of the tragic death of four Pepperdine students who were killed by a car traveling 104 miles per hour last October.
SB 1297 will introduce automated speed enforcement on the PCH to greatly deter speeding and make roads safer for pedestrians and bicyclists on a highway that is long overdue for life-saving safety improvements.
SB 961: New Cars to be Outfitted with “Intelligent Speed Assistance”
Sen. Scott Weiner’s SB 961, which would require half of all vehicles manufactured or sold in 2029 to be equipped with a speed governor, is headed to the Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection on July 2nd.
Speed governors, also known as Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), are a technology that can prevent vehicles from speeding — but, in this bill’s case, the proposed governor would use “passive ISA” (a visual or audio alert or vibration) to alert the driver that they are speeding.
The European Union has mandated passive ISA in all new cars by July 2024, and the technology’s goal is to discourage drivers from speeding and reduce traffic incidents and fatalities.
SB 1509: Increased Penalties for Speeding on Highways
The bipartisan SB 1509 — authored by Henry Stern and co-authored by Benjamin Allen, Jacqui Irwin, Roger Niello, Kelly Seyarto, and Thomas Umberg—aims to increase the penalty for driving at dangerous speeds. It is also headed to the Appropriations Committee.
SB 1509 will increase accountability for dangerous driving by issuing a reckless driving infraction to speeders “going 26 mph over the speed limit on roads with speed limits of 55 mph or lower (roads other than freeways)”. The infraction will have a two-point offense attached, an increase from the current one-point offense — a woefully insufficient punishment for such a dangerous violation. A two-point offense will result in a warning letter from the DMV, which, per the DMV, has been shown to discourage drivers from continuing dangerous driving habits.
Streets Are For Everyone Executive Director and Founder Damian Kevitt and a team of UCLA policy and legislation interns led by Kristen Weiss have been working hard to pass these bills, show a broad support base, and overcome any opposition.
“People are dying at a higher rate on California roads than in years past, and the primary factor is reckless speeding,” Levitt said. “SAFE is putting our all into getting these bills into law to help rein in the deaths on our roads and solve this public health crisis. It’s also important to acknowledge the authors, co-authors, and supporters of these bills, who work tirelessly with us to ensure their passage.”
Though the work is far from done, we at SAFE wanted to thank everyone for their dedication to getting these important pieces of legislation this far and to ensure we hold our elected officials accountable for their promises to make our streets safer.