No. CS/CS/CS/HB 543
Filed under Transportation.
Transportation; Revises & provides provisions relating to increasing minimum perception-reaction time for steady yellow signals, seaports, speed detection systems in school zones, automated license plate recognition systems, private school bus contractors, school bus infraction detection systems, lowering maximum speed limits, flashing beacons, school zones, radar & LiDAR units, disabled parking permits, golf carts, prevention of excessive or unusual noise, motor vehicle registration, license plate frames or decorative border devices, digital driver licenses & electronic credentialing system, digital imaged licenses, use of data by identity verification service providers, direct payments to subcontractors, metropolitan planning organizations, & takeover agreements; provides various penalties.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDSchool-zone speed cameras can only ticket drivers while the zone's flashing beacon is actually lit, and every camera-monitored intersection gets 0.4 more seconds of yellow-light time built into the signal timing.
Anyone who receives a school-zone or speed-camera notice of violation gets 60 days to respond instead of 30, and can reschedule a contested hearing twice instead of once.
New privacy rules bar private license-plate cameras from selling driver data and stop the state from tracking digital driver license use, but the rewritten law also drops the parallel option for a digital state identification card.
Disabled drivers using wheelchair equipment gain protection from towing when a vehicle needs two parking spaces, seaports near spaceport sites face a direct ban on converting cargo facilities, and loud exhaust use becomes its own traffic offense.
AIRequires DOT and local governments to add 0.4 seconds to the minimum perception-reaction time used to calculate steady yellow signal duration at any intersection equipped with a traffic infraction detector, lengthening the yellow phase before a light turns red.
AIA restricted school-zone speed limit can only be enforced by camera when the zone's flashing beacon is actually activated at the time of the violation, with phase-in relief through January 2028 for zones lacking a beacon or photographic beacon-status proof.
AIA private property owner running an automated license plate recognition system may not share, sell, or profit-share images or plate data except for narrow law-enforcement or parking-enforcement purposes, and must encrypt and audit access; violators face a noncriminal fine up to $2,000.
AIThe department may not track where a credentialholder uses a digital driver license or share, store, or sell related information unless required by law, and must delete or anonymize data once its stated purpose is fulfilled.
AIThe rewritten statute deletes the existing definition and issuance path for a digital proof of identification card, leaving the digital credentialing system, and its new privacy protections, to cover only driver licenses, not state ID cards held by non-drivers.
AIA vehicle with a valid disabled parking permit and permanently installed mobility equipment, such as a wheelchair ramp or lift, may occupy more than one parking space when needed and cannot be cited, penalized, or towed solely for that reason, absent a safety hazard.
AIA private company that provides school bus services may not be charged a fee by, or forced to pay, a school district or a bus-camera vendor for installing, operating, or maintaining a school bus infraction detection system, and may not obstruct its installation.
AIThe bill removes the earlier condition tying a seaport's cargo-conversion restriction to receipt of state project grants or funding, so the ban on converting cargo facilities now applies to any qualifying spaceport-territory seaport regardless of funding, subject to public notice and a two-thirds board vote.