Office of Assemblymember Marc Berman AB 2583 Fact Sheet Page 1
AB 2583 (Berman)
Safer School Zones
SUMMARY
AB 2583 would increase safety in school zones
through lower speed limits, clearer timeframes when
the lower speed limits are in effect, and improved
planning practices.
BACKGROUND
School zones are areas that have a reduced speed
along a section of roadway where children are going
to and from school. Unfortunately, California’s
current school zone laws fail to keep kids walking
and biking to school safe, and fall behind other
states that have enacted more rigorous safety
policies.
Of the 39 states that set a maximum school zone
speed by statute, California is one of just eight states with a school zone sp eed limit greater than 20mph.
Thirteen states have a school zone speed limit of
15mph, including Arizona and Nevada. While
California allows cities to lower school zones speed
limits, many cities do not take advantage of this
safety mechanism.
Research shows that reducing speed limits in school
zones can bring significant safety benefits by
reducing vehicular speeds and fatal and injury
crashes.1
According to the UC Berkeley Transportation Injury
Mapping System , in 2022 there were 71,406
crashes within 1/2 m ile of schools in California
between 7am and 6pm. 377 people were killed, and
58,770 were injured.
The average risk of severe injury for a pedestrian
struck by a vehicle reaches 10% at an impact speed
of 16 mph and 25% at 23 mph, an increase of 250%.
Risk of death at 15mph is 4%, while the risk at
25mph is 12% (a 300% increase). One out of 10
pedestrians struck by a vehicle traveling at 40mph
1 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjce-2018-0060 2 SRTSActionPlan.pdf (seattle.gov)
will survive, but 9 out of 10 pedestrians will survive
when a vehicle is traveling at 20mph.2 Additionally,
at lower speeds, drivers can see more of their
surroundings and have more time to see and react
to potential hazards.
While lowering the speed limit is important, ensuring
that drivers comply with the speed limit is equally
necessary. Currently, California u tilizes the vague
metric of, “When Children are Present.” Other states
have found this metric to be less effective than set
timeframes.3 Only six other states mandate the use
of “ When Children are P resent.” The majority of
other states including New York, Texas, Oregon ,
and Nevada, utilize set timeframes.
“When Children are Present ” requires motorists to
make snap judgments that may not be accurate.
What if a child is present, but they are not visible
from behind a sign? What if there is a group of
teenagers present who look like adults? On top of
the demands of safely operating a vehicle, the metric
requires motorists to survey the area around a
school for the presence of children as well as
determine if the school has a fence , leading many
drivers to not comply and posing enforcement
challenges. Importantly, “When Children are
Present” offers no protection to teachers, parents,
school employees, or any other adults who travel to
and from schools.
A time-based standard is easier for drivers to comply
with because it provides a statewide, consistent, and
easy-to-understand parameter to follow. With a time-
based metric, motorists will no longer have to guess
the conditions of individual school zones as they
approach.
Additionally, d angerous walking conditions for
students have led to serious unintended
consequences. Two-thirds of school -aged children
in California live within 2 miles of their school, yet
over half of those children arrive to school in a
private vehicle. Parents cite concerns about the
speed and the amount of traffic along the route as
the primary reasons for not walking their kids to
3 https://static.tti.tamu.edu/tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-5470-
1.pdf
Office of Assemblymember Marc Berman AB 2583 Fact Sheet Page 2
school. Increased car trips result in more traffic
congestion. C ongestion around schools leads to
increased pollution not just for the nearby
neighborhood but also inside the classroom .4
Moreover, walking and biking can boost students’
health, physical activity, and even their
concentration in school. 5 Research has also found
that if children are taught early to walk or bike to
school, they are far more likely to keep doing so later in their lives.6
While short -term solutions are urgently needed,
improved planning for safer streets near schools will
create significant long-term safety progress. A city’s
Circulation Element provides overal l guidance for
the city’s responsibility to satisfy the transportation and movement needs of the community, including
multimodal transportation networks, airports and
ports, military facilities and operations, and utilities .
The Circulation Element provides an opportunity for
cities to elevate school zone planning into their
current responsibility of designing a multimodal
transportation network.
California must act to implement policies that create
safe, healthy, and equitable school zones so that all
kids feel safe walking or bilking to school, and are
protected from speeding cars on roads designed for
drivers, rather than people.
THIS BILL
AB 2583 would make a series of safety
improvements to lower speed limits and protect
pedestrians in school zones.
Specifically, the bill would:
Reduce t he school zone speed limit to 20 mph
within 500ft of a school.
Improve clarity and standardization by changing
“When Children are Present” to set hours for the
school zone speed limit from 7AM -10AM and
2PM-5PM.
Allow local jurisdictions the flexibility to meet the needs of a local school community by permitting
alternate hours when the reduced speed limit is
in place.
4https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S00489697 20318738
Ease the ability of local jurisdictions to establish
extended safe school zones between 500-1000ft
of a school with 25mph speed limits to more
effectively slow traffic.
Require local jurisdictions to consider and better
plan for school zones and broader school walk
zones in the next update of their Circulation
Elements. Circulation Element updates are
permissive, meaning there is no set timeframe in
which cities must update their Circulation
Elements.
These changes would protect kids and extend the
benefits of safe walking and biking to school to
children throughout California.
SUPPORT
Streets for All (Sponsors)
California School Employees Association (CSEA)
OPPOSITION
None on File
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Isabelle LaSalle
Office of Assemblymember Marc Berman
(916) 319-2023 (916) 319-2123 (fax)
[email protected]
5 Why, and How, Kids Should Walk or Bike to School
(nextcity.org)
6 Young Children Who Walk or Bike to School Are More
Likely to Continue the Habit as They Age | Rutgers University