Bike-Related Bills in the 2014 Virginia General Assembly

[rcannon100]

Anonymity is a first amendment protected right. With that language, that could be subject to a challenge.

[mattotoole]

Been busy so haven’t gotten to posting the latest here.

Dooring was killed in committee yesterday. Please read Bud’s report and the nice article in WaPo.

HB82 “following too closely” is being reconsidered, and will be heard by Senate Transpo tomorrow afternoon. Tom wrote a nice position paper on it, which we hope y’all can use to get constituents to write to Senate Transpo members, before they meet tomorrow afternoon.

[Terpfan]

@mattotoole 78312 wrote:

Been busy so haven’t gotten to posting the latest here.

Dooring was killed in committee yesterday. Please read Bud’s report and the nice article in WaPo.

HB82 “following too closely” is being reconsidered, and will be heard by Senate Transpo tomorrow afternoon. Tom wrote a nice position paper on it, which we hope y’all can use to get constituents to write to Senate Transpo members, before they meet tomorrow afternoon.

Why on earth did they table it before? Typically you would want almost all “rules of the road” type provisions to apply equally to all vehicles–motorized, pedal, horse, or otherwise. Wish I had the time to go down and testify on it and help out. Where do the insurance companies come down on it (or do they care)? Equestrian community (I would guess more a related parks/recs type of association)? AAA? I would think all of those folks would be in favor of it.

[mstone]

@Terpfan 78351 wrote:

Why on earth did they table it before?

Because some are clueless and some hate cyclists; an unfortunate intersection of cluelessness and hate. (Seriously, read the transcript.)

[Subby]

“Thank you for your email asking for my vote on HB 82 which made it illegal to tailgate all vehicles. This bill was passed by indefinitely in the Senate transportation committee with a bipartisan vote. I do not serve on that committee so I was unable to vote on the bill.”

Thanks Janet Howell?

[Terpfan]

@mstone 78360 wrote:

Because some are clueless and some hate cyclists; an unfortunate intersection of cluelessness and hate. (Seriously, read the transcript.)

Dumb quesiton, how do you access the transcripts? Bud’s explanation left me thinking the issue is the committee chair. I’m not as familiar with the VGA rules, but the whole thing just strikes me as odd. He gave both bills a vote (tabling them is usually the easiest way to kill a bill if it’s permitted in Richmond) and then killed one with a proxy vote while letting the other out. I doubt the full body would entertain a petition on the item, however, it may be worth suggesting to the speaker that it’s an option considered in the future to show that the nonsense should end (albeit, I’m not sure where their standing rules are to see if they include the petition process, but it’s typically included in most states).

[mstone]

@Terpfan 78370 wrote:

Dumb quesiton, how do you access the transcripts?

AFAIK, virginia has no official transcripts of committee proceedings. (In some ways, the general assembly is more of a banana republic than a jeffersonian democracy, and trying to figure out what sort of shenanigans are happening in committee is one of those ways.) I was referring to the quote from the vabike piece (“Bicycles move so slowly along rural roads, that when cars come upon them, they have to slow down, and then it takes them longer in the other lane at slower speed in order to get past the bicycle.”) Sorry, should have worded it better.

[Terpfan]

@mstone 78374 wrote:

AFAIK, virginia has no official transcripts of committee proceedings. (In some ways, the general assembly is more of a banana republic than a jeffersonian democracy, and trying to figure out what sort of shenanigans are happening in committee is one of those ways.) I was referring to the quote from the vabike piece (“Bicycles move so slowly along rural roads, that when cars come upon them, they have to slow down, and then it takes them longer in the other lane at slower speed in order to get past the bicycle.”) Sorry, should have worded it better.

I must have read right past that because I would have rolled over laughing. I hope someone responded, “what should cars do when they approach a tractor, someone riding a four wheeler/dirtbike, or someone on horseback in a rural area?” If it’s someone that antagonistic, may even be worth saying “you’re anti-farmer.” It would definitely ruffle some feathers and still make the points.

[mstone]

@Terpfan 78403 wrote:

I must have read right past that because I would have rolled over laughing. I hope someone responded

The problem is that nobody can respond when the chairman just starts spouting idiotic stuff, and it’s hard to hold him accountable for it after the fact because there’s no record.

[Subby]

HB82 (following too closely) was reconsidered again yesterday afternoon, and again failed in committee 11-4.

0-2 now with the defeat of this and the dooring law. 3 foot law now up for flogging.

http://www.vabike.org/hb82-following-too-closely-fails-again-in-committee/

[Terpfan]

@Subby 78488 wrote:

HB82 (following too closely) was reconsidered again yesterday afternoon, and again failed in committee 11-4.

0-2 now with the defeat of this and the dooring law. 3 foot law now up for flogging.

http://www.vabike.org/hb82-following-too-closely-fails-again-in-committee/

Yah, it’s sad they went down, but I appreciate Bud and others efforts. Gives me some motivation to try to take a day off next year and offer some testimony myself. Perhaps we can even get a group to go down.

[mattotoole]

Better news today — SB97 ‘three foot passing’ got through House Transportation, and will be up for a House vote soon:

http://www.vabike.org/sb97-gets-thru-house-trans/

Now’s the time for everyone to contact your delegate, and ask them to support this bill. Do not take anyone’s vote for granted, even if they’ve supported this before!

[mstone]

It’s inconceivable that they would go for the three foot passing bill and shoot down a one word change that makes it just as illegal to follow a bike too closely as it already is to tailgate a car. It’s like governance by magic 8 ball.

[mattotoole]

@mstone 78531 wrote:

It’s inconceivable that they would go for the three foot passing bill and shoot down a one word change that makes it just as illegal to follow a bike too closely as it already is to tailgate a car.

SB97 also changes just one word, from “two” to “three”!

[lordofthemark]

@mstone 78531 wrote:

It’s inconceivable that they would go for the three foot passing bill and shoot down a one word change that makes it just as illegal to follow a bike too closely as it already is to tailgate a car. It’s like governance by magic 8 ball.

It seems to depend a lot on who introduces the bill (the 3 foot bill was introduced by an R, I think) and the personal issues of the comm and sub comm chairs.

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