Two bills of interest in the House Transportation Committee this afternoon,
as HB97/ Motorcycles may ride abreast in the same lane had about 2/3 of the hearing room filled with bikers in their leathers. After considerable debate and the State Police and Insurance Companies expressing opposition, the bill was reported by a 14-6 vote and goes on to the House floor
HB7/ Which would remove the bicyclist from the provision that passed last year that if a traffic light did not trip, they could wait two minutes, or two cycles of the lights, whichever was shorter and proceed through as though it were a stop sign.
The bill was withdrawn at the request of the patron, and technically is listed as Passed by Indefinitely. I believe the bill was an attempt to help the bicyclist, but on closer reading, it appeared to do the opposite, since it wouldn’t have permitted us to proceed after the wait, as it does for motorcyclists and mo-peds, as well as automobiles. Others reading the bill felt that it was giving us an Idaho Stop, which permitted us to treat all traffic lights as stop signs, which definitely was not the intent. In any case, the confusion is ended, and the bill is gone.
Tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. in House Transportation Sub-Committee 2, we have
an old friend coming back after resting for a couple of sessions and giving it another try with HB706/Drivers to stop for Pedestrians in Marked Crosswalks
followed by HB784/Drivers to Exercise Due Care to avoid colliding with a pedestrian or the operator of a human-powered vehicle.
I’ll let you know how we make out tomorrow morning, right after the meeting.
Bud Vye, RABA & VBF Advocacy Director
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