Virginia Legislation Action Thread

[Mark Blacknell]

Hi, all. I thought it would be helpful to start a new thread that summarizes the state of play for the various bits of legislation working its way through the General Assembly in Richmond. I’ll lead off with WABA’s Action Alert for today’s items, and then follow up with a post about other pending items.

Today:

Please Act Now to Support SB 1060 and Oppose SB 731 in the Virginia Senate

The Virginia Senate Transportation Committee will consider two bicycle-related bills on Wednesday afternoon (1/23/13). We need you to respectfully ask the Senate Transportation Committee members to:

1) Support SB 1060, Reeves, which would prohibit motorists from rear-ending or side-swiping bicyclists (i.e., following bicyclists too closely or passing bicyclists with less than a 3-foot gap).

2) Oppose SB 731, Carrico, which would prohibit riding mopeds on highways with speed limits above 35 MPH. If moped riding is banned, bicycling may be next!
You can identify and contact your state legislators from the Who’s My Legislator page.
If your Senator is listed below, call or email them directly – constituent calls really matter. Otherwise, you may call or email all three committee members from NoVA or bulk email the entire 14-member committee by simply copying the email addresses on this page and pasting them into your email’s To: field.

Senate Transportation Committee Members from NoVA

* Sen. Barbara Favola (D-31st District), [URL=”tel:804-698-7531″]804-698-7531[/URL], <district31@senate.virginia.gov>
* Sen. Dave Marsden (D-37th District), [URL=”tel:804-698-7537″]804-698-7537[/URL], <district37@senate.virginia.gov>
* Sen. Chuck Colgan (D-29th District), [URL=”tel:804-698-7529″]804-698-7529[/URL], <district29@senate.virginia.gov>

Thank you for acting on very short notice to improve bicycling in Virginia. Unfortunately, bills move swiftly at the Virginia General Assembly, and we only learned yesterday afternoon that these bill would be heard today. If the Senate Transportation Committee reports these bill today, they will be considered by the full Senate in just a few days. Please check our blog for regular updates – we’ll try not too email you too frequently.

Due to the response to our recent action alerts, the Virginia Senate has already passed SB 736 (prohibits dooring), whereas the House Transportation Committee has passed HB 1950 (prohibits rear-ending bicyclists) with a 20-1 vote.

I cannot emphasize enough now much of a difference actual constituent contact makes on these matters. We turned some votes last year with them, and have again this year. We need that to keep happening. Please feel free to cut, paste, and forward to your friends and relatives who don’t read the forum.

Finally, the General Assembly makes it difficult to get notice of what’s on the docket in a timely manner, unfortunately, so if communications/action alerts seem a bit rushed and disjointed, well . . . there are many things I’d like to fix about Richmond. But let’s start with getting better bike legislation out of them.

Topic

[Mark Blacknell]

Just to close things out for the season, SB1060 (amended to just prohibit a vehicle from following a bike/non-motorized vehicle too closely) was defeated on the House floor yesterday. The vote, per VBF’s Bud Vye:

YEAS–Anderson, BaCote, Brink, Bulova, Byron, Carr, Cole, Comstock, Dance, Fariss, Filler-Corn, Garrett, Greason, Habeeb, Herring, Hester, Hope, Howell, A.T., James, Keam, Kory, Krupicka, Lewis, Lopez, May, McClellan, McQuinn, Minchew, Morrissey, Plum, Rust, Scott, J.M., Sickles, Spruill, Stolle, Surovell, Torian, Toscano, Tyler, Ward, Ware, O., Watts–42.

NAYS–Albo, Bell, Richard P., Bell, Robert B., Cline, Cosgrove, Cox, J.A., Cox, M.K., Crockett-Stark, Dudenhefer, Edmunds, Farrell, Gilbert, Head, Helsel, Hodges, Iaquinto, Ingram, Joannou, Johnson, Jones, Kilgore, Knight, Landes, LeMunyon, Lingamfelter, Loupassi, Marshall, D.W., Marshall, R.G., Massie, Merricks, Miller, Morefield, Morris, O’Bannon, O’Quinn, Orrock, Pogge, Poindexter, Purkey, Putney, Ransone, Robinson, Rush, Scott, E.T., Sherwood, Tata, Villanueva, Ware, R.L., Watson, Webert, Wilt, Wright, Yancey, Yost, Mr. Speaker–55.

ABSTENTIONS–0.

NOT VOTING–Hugo, Peace, Ramadan–3.

30 D’s (all but Joannou of Norfolk/Portsmouth, and Johnson of Abingdon) voted for the bill, along with 12 R’s.

Didn’t do too well in the Richmond area as those who voted AGAINST the bill include John Cox (Hanover); Kirk Cox & Roxann Robinson (Chesterfield) Manoli Loupassi (Richmond): Peter Farrell, John O’Bannon, & Jimmie Massie (Henrico), Lee Ware (Powhatan), and Tommy Wright (Amelia).

While it’s setting a a *very* low bar for appreciation, if your delegate voted for it, you may want to let them know that their efforts were not lost on you (esp. if your delegate is a Republican). The only encouraging thing I can find in this is that road safety (when it comes to bikes) doesn’t necessarily have a bright-line partisan divide anymore (tho’ you can certainly see that a strongly partisan influence remains).

At some point in the near future, I’ll write up my thoughts on the legislative session as a whole and post/link it here.

I appreciate everyone’s time and assistance. Meet you back here next year.

[lordofthemark]

Somedays I just hate where I live.

I will have to send thanks to delegate Kory though.

[Terpfan]

It’s not easy voting against many of your colleagues, but I’m glad to see Del. Comstock took the vote in favor of her constituents and all of us locals.

[mstone]

I’m kind of disappointed that WABA doesn’t seem to be on top of the stop sign bill.

[Mark Blacknell]

@mstone 44220 wrote:

I’m kind of disappointed that WABA doesn’t seem to be on top of the stop sign bill.

Sen. Favola’s bill was so popular – they voted for it before she even a had a chance to speak, despite her being at the lectern in committee – that it was a done deal. The floor vote in the House:

House: VOTE: PASSAGE (90-Y 6-N)
[HR][/HR]YEAS–Albo, Anderson, BaCote, Bell, Richard P., Bell, Robert B., Brink, Bulova, Carr, Cline, Cole, Comstock, Cosgrove, Cox, J.A., Cox, M.K., Crockett-Stark, Dance, Dudenhefer, Edmunds, Fariss, Farrell, Filler-Corn, Garrett, Greason, Habeeb, Head, Helsel, Herring, Hester, Hodges, Hope, Howell, A.T., Ingram, James, Joannou, Johnson, Jones, Keam, Knight, Kory, LeMunyon, Lewis, Lopez, Loupassi, Marshall, D.W., Marshall, R.G., Massie, May, McClellan, McQuinn, Merricks, Miller, Minchew, Morris, Morrissey, O’Bannon, O’Quinn, Orrock, Peace, Plum, Pogge, Poindexter, Purkey, Putney, Ramadan, Ransone, Robinson, Rush, Rust, Scott, E.T., Scott, J.M., Sherwood, Sickles, Spruill, Stolle, Surovell, Tata, Torian, Toscano, Tyler, Villanueva, Ward, Ware, O., Watson, Watts, Webert, Wilt, Wright, Yancey, Yost, Mr. Speaker–90.
NAYS–Byron, Gilbert, Kilgore, Landes, Morefield, Ware, R.L.–6.
ABSTENTIONS–0.
NOT VOTING–Hugo, Iaquinto, Krupicka, Lingamfelter–4.

Delegate Krupicka was recorded as not voting. Intended to vote yea.
Delegate Lingamfelter was recorded as not voting. Intended to vote nay.
Delegate Webert was recorded as yea. Intended to vote nay.

WABA was on top of it as soon as the bill became public, and put a lot of time into addressing this bill. The public action alerts are but one piece of the effort. In the end, no amount of member contact was going to change the result. WABA tries hard to make sure that its requests for action from its supporters are requests for effective action, so that folks know that when they’re asked to do something, it means something. That’s why the WABA action alerts came out when we thought there might be an actual chance to kill the bill – in committee. Unfortunately, it sailed through committee despite our opposition, and the final votes were just a formality, in the end.

And yes, you’ll be hearing more about it.

[mstone]

@Mark Blacknell 44223 wrote:

Sen. Favola’s bill was so popular – they voted for it before she even a had a chance to speak, despite her being at the lectern in committee – that it was a done deal. The floor vote in the House:

Ok, so it’s basically just waiting on a signature from the governor, and then we’ll have essentially no idea what to do at intersections on the W&OD. Is there any associated effort to get rid of those signs which are still clearly illegal, regardless of whether they say “required by law”?

[Mark Blacknell]

@mstone 44224 wrote:

Ok, so it’s basically just waiting on a signature from the governor, and then we’ll have essentially no idea what to do at intersections on the W&OD. Is there any associated effort to get rid of those signs which are still clearly illegal, regardless of whether they say “required by law”?

Yes, just awaiting signature. If you happen to know Gov. McDonnell, do feel free to suggest that he veto it!

Remember, this is just enabling legislation. Nothing actually changes on the trails until the local jurisdictions pass conforming ordinances. Yes, WABA will be watching in the NoVA area (and VBF will be letting the rest of the state know about it). I’m not worried about Arlington or Fairfax. Falls Church, no more so than usual.

Loudoun will be the tricky place, as they’re the ones that pushed this whole thing and I expect they’ve probably already got a draft ordinance in hand. It won’t really help to have a bunch of cyclists from DC and Arlington head out to their county hearings, either. So please think about the people you may know in Loudoun, and be prepared to ask them to help us all out when the time comes.

(And yes, there are ongoing efforts to clean up improperly posted stop signs.)

[mstone]

@Mark Blacknell 44226 wrote:

Remember, this is just enabling legislation. Nothing actually changes on the trails until the local jurisdictions pass conforming ordinances.

No, there’s a big change: currently I can blissfully assume that the signs are BS. Once the legislation is signed, I don’t know whether a particular sign is BS unless I 1) figure out where I am 2) figure out what the ordinance is for that spot 3) check the speed limit on the road where the sign is posted. I may be missing additional steps–I was serious about “not knowing what to do”.

[Megabeth]

I just wanted to take a moment to say that I know there were a lot of late night phone calls, meetings, conference calls, in-person trips to Richmond, talking to staff, and other communications happening regarding all of this. There have been so many moving parts, last minute changes and surprises. Through all of this, we have to remember, for many of the folks involved they are volunteering their time on top of their full-time jobs, family and other committments to help try to push things forward for the cycling community.

That said…

I want to give a hearty THANK YOU to everyone involved in these efforts during this VA legislative season. While not everything went completely in favor of cyclists, we do appreciate everything you do! Thank you!

[Mark Blacknell]

@mstone 44232 wrote:

No, there’s a big change: currently I can blissfully assume that the signs are BS. Once the legislation is signed, I don’t know whether a particular sign is BS unless I 1) figure out where I am 2) figure out what the ordinance is for that spot 3) check the speed limit on the road where the sign is posted. I may be missing additional steps–I was serious about “not knowing what to do”.

I’ll take your point (tho’ really, the lawyer in me wants to demonstrate how correct I was in my original characterization). But I’d also say that no, you cannot necessarily, from a practical standpoint, assume that the signs are BS right now. They’re still points of enforcement, and you could very well snag a legit ticket for entering in disregard of approaching traffic.

The long term hope for all this is that we can establish a reasonable standard of enforcement at properly placed stop signs along the W&OD. That’s going to take a bit of time and effort, and I’d like to think that WABA will get lots of support for it.

[baiskeli]

@mstone 44232 wrote:

No, there’s a big change: currently I can blissfully assume that the signs are BS. Once the legislation is signed, I don’t know whether a particular sign is BS unless I 1) figure out where I am 2) figure out what the ordinance is for that spot 3) check the speed limit on the road where the sign is posted. I may be missing additional steps–I was serious about “not knowing what to do”.

What to do? Follow the sign, or be prepared to go to court to challenge it. Just like now.

It’s a weird situation, where we have a locality putting up signs it has no authority to put up. It doesn’t happen very often. But when it does, it’s usually just as hard to figure out which are legal and which aren’t as it will be in this case.

And, of course, as Mark noted, you can’t really blissfully ignore the signs now – you still might get cited, and you still might have to go to court if you want to challenge that. So it seems to me that not much will change in that regard.

[mstone]

@Mark Blacknell 44248 wrote:

I’ll take your point (tho’ really, the lawyer in me wants to demonstrate how correct I was in my original characterization). But I’d also say that no, you cannot necessarily, from a practical standpoint, assume that the signs are BS right now. They’re still points of enforcement, and you could very well snag a legit ticket for entering in disregard of approaching traffic.

I’d be perfectly happy to see tickets for entering in disregard, and I’d also be perfectly happy to argue whether that involves a foot-down stop, just as I’m perfectly happy to go to court under the current law for failing to stop at a trail stop sign. I’m happy with that because I’m currently being safe and lawful. Under the new regime I will be safe, but will have no idea whether I’m being lawful in a given situation.

[sjclaeys]

@Megabeth 44247 wrote:

I just wanted to take a moment to say that I know there were a lot of late night phone calls, meetings, conference calls, in-person trips to Richmond, talking to staff, and other communications happening regarding all of this. There have been so many moving parts, last minute changes and surprises. Through all of this, we have to remember, for many of the folks involved they are volunteering their time on top of their full-time jobs, family and other committments to help try to push things forward for the cycling community.

That said…

I want to give a hearty THANK YOU to everyone involved in these efforts during this VA legislative season. While not everything went completely in favor of cyclists, we do appreciate everything you do! Thank you!

I second the big thank you for everyone involved. My biggest frustration is with State Senator (former Arlington County Board Member) Barbara Favola for apparently not reaching out to the cycling community before introducing her bill.

[Mark Blacknell]

@sjclaeys 44267 wrote:

I second the big thank you for everyone involved. My biggest frustration is with State Senator (former Arlington County Board Member) Barbara Favola for apparently not reaching out to the cycling community before introducing her bill.

Data point: She *did*. She specifically asked the ABAC and Arlington County staff for their feedback the same week it was introduced. And the feedback of the ABAC and AC staff pretty much reflected what you’ve seen here. We saw the result.

Extrapolate as you will.

[sjclaeys]

@Mark Blacknell 44302 wrote:

Data point: She *did*. She specifically asked the ABAC and Arlington County staff for their feedback the same week it was introduced. And the feedback of the ABAC and AC staff pretty much reflected what you’ve seen here. We saw the result.

Extrapolate as you will.

Asking for feedback the same week that the bill was introduced does not constitute meaningful outreach. I doubt that her interaction with Loudoun County officials was limited to that week.

[Author]

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