Several of the bills we are interested in were heard in House Transportation Subcommittee 1, which met yesterday morning at 7 a.m.
We thought Del. Yost of Blacksburg’s bill HB1360 which would require all cyclists under 18 years of age to wear helmets while riding would not be that well received so did not speak against it. We were surprised to see it get reported out by a 6-1 vote, so now have to take a more active position in opposition. Although we personally wear helmets when riding, and RABA has always “Strongly Recommended” that riders do so on its rides, we don’t feel that it should be required by law. It also poses some obvious enforcement problems for law enforcement, particularly with the “under 18 years of age” clause in it. We expect that it will be heard in the House Transportation Committee meeting at 8:30 on Thursday, and will speak in opposition to it at that time.
Sen. Rip Sullivan of Northern VA did a nice job of presenting HB1173, the House version of the Vulnerable Road User bill ( Penalizing the person who operates a motor vehicle in a careless or distracted manner and is the cause of serious physical injury to a vulnerable road user), but it met the same fate as Sen. Scott Surovell’s identical Senate bill had earlier, and did not survive. As had been the case in Senate Transportation, some members of the committee seemed to think that the punishment of a Class 1 Misdemeanor, and a one year suspension of license, for this offense, which is more severe than that for failing to “Move Over” for law enforcement at an accident, or workers at a road construction site, is too severe. We’ll take a close look at that prior to bringing it back again next session.
Del. Rich Anderson of Manassas also did a nice job of presenting HB461, the cell phone restriction bill identical to SB778, Senator Barker’s bill which had been reported out of Senate Transportation 10-3 and is now on the Senate floor. This bill, which is attempting to restrict some additional activities, such as Facebook, Instagram, taking photos, etc. beyond Texting (which is presently prohibited), but still permit phone calls and use of a GPS is still being worked on to come up with more acceptable language, but nevertheless did get Reported out by a 6-1 vote. Now this bill, as well as Del. Yost’s Helmet bill, should be heard on Thursday morning in House Transportation.
HB 1335, Del. Scott Taylor of VA Beach’s bill to permit cities and towns who convert motor vehicle lanes to bicycle only lanes to still receive reimbursement for highway maintenance still has not been listed for a subcommittee hearing. With Crossover approaching on Monday, we wonder what it’s disposition will be, and whether it will be conformed with Sen. Alexander’s identical SB669, which has just unanimously passed on the Senate floor, 40-0.
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-ffAr_0M34f91E.gif\")