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H. 3780
STATUS INFORMATION
General Bill
Sponsors: Reps. Loftis, Cotty, Whipper, Bedingfield, G.R. Smith, Davenport, Duncan, Mitchell, Hardwick, Haskins, Brantley, Anthony, Ballentine, Bannister, Bingham, Bowen, Brady, Cato, Ceips, Chalk, Chellis, Clemmons, Cooper, Dantzler, Edge, Funderburk, Gullick, Hagood, Haley, Hamilton, Harrell, Harrison, Hayes, Herbkersman, Hinson, Hiott, Huggins, Kelly, Leach, Limehouse, Littlejohn, Lowe, Lucas, Mahaffey, Merrill, Mulvaney, Neilson, Owens, Pinson, E.H. Pitts, Rice, Sandifer, Scarborough, Shoopman, Simrill, F.N. Smith, W.D. Smith, Stewart, Taylor, Thompson, Toole, Umphlett, Viers, Walker, Sellers, Hart and Alexander
Document Path: l:\council\bills\swb\5184cm07.doc
Introduced in the House on March 27, 2007
Currently residing in the House Committee on Education and Public Works
Summary: Transportation Performance and Accountability Act of 2007
HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS
Date Body Action Description with journal page number ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3/27/2007 House Introduced and read first time HJ-7 3/27/2007 House Referred to Committee on Education and Public Works HJ-7 3/28/2007 House Member(s) request name added as sponsor: Sellers 3/29/2007 House Member(s) request name added as sponsor: Hart, Alexander
View the latest legislative information at the LPITS web site
VERSIONS OF THIS BILL
TO AMEND TITLE 57, THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING CHAPTER 6 TO ENACT THE "TRANSPORTATION PERFORMANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2007" SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION SHALL IMPLEMENT THE TRAFFIC CONGESTION REDUCTION PROGRAM WHOSE PURPOSE IS TO MINIMIZE TRAFFIC CONGESTION ALONG THE STATE'S HIGHWAYS IN ORDER TO PROMOTE ECONOMIC GROWTH WITHIN THE STATE AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE WELL-BEING AND SAFETY OF THE STATE'S CITIZENS.
Whereas, the General Assembly finds that the state's worsening transportation problems are imposing substantial costs on the state's citizens and businesses; and
Whereas, traffic congestion in the state's major metropolitan areas has worsened over time in relation to comparable metropolitan areas in other states; and
Whereas, traffic congestion diminishes air quality and safety; and
Whereas, traffic congestion undermines the state's economic health, its citizens' quality of life, working conditions and prosperity, and perpetuates poverty; and
Whereas, the absence of a specific plan by the State and local governments to address traffic congestion ensures that it will continue to worsen; and
Whereas, the State must undertake steps to minimize traffic congestion in order to contribute to the economic growth of the State and to the well-being and safety of all the state's citizens. Now, therefore,
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. This act may be cited as the "Transportation Performance and Accountability Act of 2007".
SECTION 2. Title 57 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
Section 57-6-10. The Traffic Congestion Reduction Program applies to all counties in the State.
Section 57-6-20. The Department of Transportation shall adopt an objective to provide freeway and arterial level of Service E as defined in the Highway Capacity Manual 2000 edition of the Transportation Research Board. Level of Service E is expected at ninety-nine percent of the intersections in South Carolina while they operate under normal conditions during peak periods of traffic. Effective use of 'Traffic Toolbox' techniques must be made including measures to include ramp metering, freeway widening, urban underpasses, and integrated traffic signal coordination. Capital intensive measures including new high occupancy toll or other managed lanes and tunnels should be considered also.
Section 57-6-30. The department shall adopt interim objectives that improve the level of service for at least one hundred miles of urban arterial streets or freeways per year.
Section 57-6-40. The department shall propose a cost-effective plan to achieve the long-term and interim objectives at the lowest possible cost. The principal purpose of the plan is to identify the roadway resources and strategies that need to be implemented to achieve the long-term and interim traffic congestion reduction objectives. The plan shall include cost estimates and the cost per reduced delay hour compared to the status quo case for the achievement of the long-term and interim traffic congestion reduction objectives.
Section 57-6-50. The traffic congestion reduction plan shall not include the use of tolling or road pricing except for capacity expansion. No lanes currently operating without tolls may be converted to tolling or road pricing.
Section 57-6-60. To the maximum extent feasible, the department shall apply a cost per delay hour standard in project evaluation within each of the state's major metropolitan areas. Costs shall include only actual proposed monetary expenditures by the State or other organizations making actual monetary expenditures with respect to the projects under consideration.
Section 56-6-70. In all of its project planning, the department shall consider the cost per reduced delay hour as a factor in decision making. The department shall require the use of the cost per delay hour factor in the major project planning by any authority, agency, or jurisdiction receiving transportation funding from the State. Major projects shall include projects with a projected cost of ten million dollars or more. While the program is focused appropriately on highway improvements, any improvement that is less costly per reduced delay hour than the highway improvement in the same corridor must be fundable under this program. All major projects must be re-evaluated two years after completion to ascertain actual delay improvements and actual benefits and costs.
Section 57-6-80. The department must implement a statewide traffic flow improvement plan that:
(1) provides effective incident management that reduces annual incident congestion delay by at least twenty-five percent within five years from date of enactment;
(2) reduces delays caused by congestion on roadways that are scheduled for improvement projects by an average of ten percent per year; and
(3) reduces delay caused by congestion in construction work zones by ten percent per year.
Section 57-6-90. The department must:
(1) maintain annually at least eighty percent of the state's road surface in acceptable ride quality condition as measured by the International Roughness Index;
(2) maintain annually all bridges identified as weight restricted and/or structurally deficient so that there is no adverse effect of the safe use of the bridges by emergency vehicles, school buses, and vehicles servicing the area economy; and
(3) repair all reported potholes located in a roadway within one day of the receipt of notification ninety-eight percent of the time except during emergencies and adverse weather.
Section 57-6-100. The department is required to:
(1) reduce the injury rate, as measured by injuries per one hundred million vehicle miles traveled (VMT), by an average of two percent per year over the next ten years and reduce the number of injuries by one and one-half percent per year over the next ten years;
(2) reduce the fatality rate, as measured by fatalities per one hundred million VMT, by an average of two percent per year over the next ten years and reduce the number of fatalities by one and one-half percent per year over the next ten years; and
(3) develop emergency preparedness plans, including regional evacuation plans, to respond to natural disasters, incidents related to homeland security, and serious disruption of major arteries due to infrastructure failure or serious traffic accidents.
Section 57-6-110. (A) The department shall work cooperatively with the college-level engineering programs in the State to create a center and programs that integrate engineering education with congestion mitigation and safety improvements in the State.
(B) The department must issue an annual report to the General Assembly and the citizens of the State that would require the department to obtain information from other agencies along the lines of the information they already report to federal agencies, to include the Bureau of the Census and the Federal Transit Administration.
Section 57-6-115. Counties and municipalities must use the cost per delay hour method developed by the Department of Transportation to evaluate its local transportation improvement programs."
SECTION 3. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
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