I urge you to veto AB-382, SB-720, and AB-289. Each bill imposes sweeping, costly, and unnecessary enforcement schemes that sacrifice sound engineering, due process, and public trust while doing little or nothing to improve safety.

AB-382 (Berman) would turn vast stretches of California roads into permanent speed traps by mandating 20 mph limits within 500 feet of every school—at all hours, year-round, and even when no children are present—while letting cities add 25 mph zones up to 1,000 feet on high-speed arterials. It overrides decades of engineering practice and CTCDC guidance, disconnecting speed zones from real, observed risk and making compliance nearly impossible on multi-lane roads. Drivers could be fined hundreds of dollars for perfectly safe travel when no students are crossing, inviting pretextual stops and eroding respect for school-zone safety. The Senate Appropriations analysis warns of multi-million-dollar costs to replace signs and update systems statewide, drawing on a strained General Fund at a time of budget crisis. Current law already lets local engineers set 15- or 20-mph limits where conditions warrant, so this sweeping mandate is not only costly but entirely unnecessary.

SB-720 (Ashby) is unnecessary and dangerous because California law already permits the use of red-light cameras without stripping away constitutional safeguards. The bill instead rewrites the system to make vehicle owners automatically liable and forces disputes into city-run administrative hearings that lack judges, discovery, cross-examination, and the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard, treating the citation itself as sufficient proof of guilt. It would spur mass ticketing for minor, low-risk maneuvers—such as slow rolling right turns and brief left-turn follow-throughs—that raise revenue without improving safety. By allowing cities to keep 100 percent of fine revenue for unrelated projects, SB-720 creates a strong profit motive and an estimated $130 million annual loss to state and county funds. This bill offers no new safety authority—only a lucrative shortcut benefiting for-profit camera vendors to exploit hardworking, low-income Californians, while stripping away due process and undermining public trust.

AB-289 (Haney) authorizes automated work-zone speed cameras even though the data show there is no demonstrated safety need. An NMA analysis of ten years of CHP crash records found fewer than one state-highway work-zone fatality per year attributable to a driver traveling too fast for conditions, representing just 0.02 % of all roadway fatalities, and OSHA reports confirm only a handful of such cases statewide. Cameras would not provide real-time protection to workers and are less effective than proven engineering measures such as speed-feedback signs, flashing beacons, and visible CHP patrols, which can cut average and 85th-percentile speeds immediately and at lower cost. The bill further erodes due process by making vehicle owners automatically liable in administrative hearings that require only a “preponderance of evidence,” forbid discovery, and limit appeals—standards far weaker than existing traffic courts. AB-289 also allows ticketing even when no workers are present, turning a safety rationale into a revenue stream. These facts make clear that automated work-zone speed enforcement is neither necessary nor justified.

Together, these three bills would impose unfunded mandates, expand automated enforcement, and divert scarce public resources while weakening fundamental legal protections. They address no genuine safety gap and would instead burden Californians with unnecessary costs and inequitable penalties.

For these reasons, I respectfully urge you to veto AB-382, SB-720, and AB-289 to protect both public safety and the rights of California’s motorists.