Traffic safety: speed limits.

Assembly Member Rogers' traffic safety legislation expands the California Department of Transportation's authority to modify speed limits on state highways, particularly near recreational areas and business districts where pedestrian activity is high. The bill authorizes both the Department and local authorities to reduce speed limits up to 12.4 miles per hour below the 85th percentile speed when supported by engineering studies.

The measure creates new pathways for establishing lower speed limits, allowing officials to designate "safety corridors" on up to one-fifth of their streets and set 20 or 25 mile-per-hour limits in business activity districts that meet specific criteria. These districts must have at least three qualifying features, such as retail frontage, street parking, traffic signals at regular intervals, or marked crosswalks. The Department must define technical requirements for safety corridors and areas of high pedestrian concentration in its next traffic control manual update.

When any new lower speed limit takes effect under these provisions, peace officers must issue only warning citations for the first 30 days to violations within 10 miles per hour of the posted limit. The bill maintains existing requirements for engineering studies while adding flexibility to retain current limits or restore previous ones on highways where conditions have not substantially changed. These modifications aim to address safety concerns in areas with concentrated pedestrian activity while preserving technical standards for speed limit determinations.