Letter to Legislative Committee, Board of Supervisors


Modern Transit Society

P.O. Box 5582, San Jose CA 95150        408 221-0694

June  9, 2005

Supervisors Jim Beall, Chair and Liz Kniss
Legislative Committee
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors

Subject: Deceptive agenda at the Legislative Committee with regard to SB 1233

Dear Supervisor Jim Beall and and Supervisor Liz Kniss,

Only 2 of 8 expressways, Foothill and San Tomas, still have prohibitory signs on both sides of the road, forcing walkers into long detours. In April of this year, half of the remaining signs were removed. These signs stated “pedestrians [blank] and equestrians prohibited” --the blank formerly stated "bicycles." I had informed staff that these signs were illegal because they are not on the Caltrans list of approved regulatory signs.

Staff then proceeded to “install ‘pedestrians prohibited’ signs”, smaller and reduced to two words.

The phrase in quotation marks, above, is the exact wording of the Legislative Committee and BOS agenda in the Legislative Policies, page 77, on December 4 and 16, 2003. The agenda item looked innocuous, but it resulted in vastly expanding authority to prohibit pedestrians and bicycles Statewide.

I was deceived by this agenda item in December 2003 because it appeared inconsequential. This enabled County staff  to present their legislation request to the Senate Transportation Committee as non-controversial. The proposed changes to the CVC and SHC was far beyond what was stated or implied by the agenda item. At the County level, staff also falsely stated it was a "minor modification".

False statements were made directly to the Legislative Committee on Dec. 4, 2003. First, here is the BOS policy, quoting the County Expressway Plan [adopted Aug. 19, 2003, page 93]:
        "shoulder/path facilities can serve ... for occasional pedestrian use." 

The Committee agenda states:

"Current law does not provide explicit authority for the County to post 'Pedestrians Prohibited' signs along side of County expressways. At the same time, it is the County’s responsibility to keep this area free of pedestrians to maintain safety on the roadside."

The first sentence is contradicted by County Counsel legal opinions and by the fact that the Vehicle Code chapter "Traffic Signs, Signals and Markings" [Division 11, Chapter 2] was NOT changed by SB 1233 despite the title used on the agenda "Expressway Signage". In other words, "expressway signage" did not change any law for signage. The second sentence is derogatory and contradicts the BOS policy in the County Expressway Plan, quoted above. It also makes no exception for sidewalks, paths, bus stops or shoulders in its "free of pedestrians" statement.

In short, the BOS never approved the legislation to "prohibit" or "restrict access", only approved "installing" or "posting" signs, for which it already had undisputed authority for 40 years.

The Modern Transit Society requests the Legislative Committee and the Board to endorse the complete restoration of CVC 21960 and SHC 1730 which protected the rights of bicyclists, pedestrians and transit patrons.

Further information is on this web page:

       moderntransit.org/restore/contents.htm

For questions, please contact me at 408 221 0694.

Sincerely,

Akos Szoboszlay
President


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