Through the process known as “gut and amend,” two new bills that may affect cycling in the Golden State are on the legislative agenda for 2013.

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California bike lane design immunity bill tabled, for now.

Diane Harkey’s AB 738 was the controversial bill that would have conferred absolute design immunity to public agencies and their employees if a cyclist is injured or killed on any road where there’s a bike lane, whether the cyclist was riding in the bike lane or not.

Ms Harkey, who represents portions of Orange County in Southern California, told cycling advocates that she introduced the bill to encourage local governments to install more bike lanes. Although she denies there’s any relation, the city of Dana Point in Harkey’s district paid a record $49 million settlement to two women who were paralyzed in 2006 after they were struck in the bike lane by a hit and run driver.

The bill has languished without action in committee since introduction last February. After cyclists and advocacy groups around the state quietly communicated their dissatisfaction with AB 738 to the members of the Judiciary Committee and Local Government Committee, Assembly Member Harkey asked those committees to remove AB 738 from their hearing schedules.

Harkey’s staffers say she doesn’t plan to bring this bill up for reconsideration this legislative year, but hint we may see another attempt at this design immunity for bike lanes in 2014.

Thank you to Brenda in San Clemente for this followup information.

Diane Harkey’s AB 738 to indemnify public agencies and their workers from design defects on any road with a bike lane has been removed from the Assembly Judiciary Committee hearings calendar. I’m not really sure what this mean, though I can speculate that maybe the sponsoring legislator is considering pulling the bill after hearing how unpopular this is with cyclists and others concerned with public safety?

Dickinson’s AB 206 to allow 3-bike capacity racks on Sacramento transit buses passed the California Assembly on April and was read in the Senate.

AB 417 to exempt certain bicycle projects from the CEQA passed the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and has been passed along to the Appropriations Committee, where Jennifer Galehouse has prepared a legislative analysis for that committee. As background for AB 417, Galehouse notes Rob Anderson’s successful challenge to San Francisco’s bicycle plan using California’s environmental review law.

There are no changes on the other bills I’m tracking since my last update on April 9.

AB 738- Absolute bike lane design immunity.

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California Assemblyman Stephen Bradford (D-Gardena) amended AB 1371 to address liability concerns Governor Jerry Brown expressed over last year’s version of the Three Foot Safe Passing Law that he vetoed.

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