A good day today, which started with HB1402, Del. Loupassi’s Highway Maintenance Payments bill clearing House Transportation with a 17-4 vote and another supporting voter (Del. Delores McQuinn) out sick. The bill now goes on to the House floor to be voted on by the entire 100 Delegates. Although the bill appears to be sailing through, would not hurt for everyone to contact their Delegate asking them to support the bill on the floor, in the next day or so.
Then, on the Senate Floor, SB781, which will permit a driver to cross the double yellow line, when safe to do so, in order to safely pass a bicyclist, runner or pedestrian, was passed by a resounding 37 – 1 with only our old friend, Sen. Carrico keeping his record intact of never supporting a single cycling safety bill in his more than 10 years worth of votes.
Also on the Senate Floor, SB882, the Dooring bill, passed by a somewhat closer 27-12 vote, as Sen. Carrico was joined in opposing the bill by 11 others, including Martin (Chesterfield), McDougle (Hanover) & Garrett (Goochland) from the Richmond area. Now both bills await Crossover, where I expect we will see them both in House Transportation SubCommittee2, probably on Monday, Feb. 9 at 7 a.m.
A big docket tomorrow in Senate Transportation (45 minutes after the Senate Floor adjourns, which is usually somewhere around 1:45- 2:00) containing a number of duplicate bills we have already seen on the House side. In this category are Sen. Bryce Reeves’ Don’t Follow Too Closely bill (Del. Bill DeSteph’s identical bill has already passed the House); Sen. Dance’s two Highway Reimbursement bills (Del. Loupassi’s similar bill has already passed House Transportation); Sen Jennifer Wexton’s bill Restricting Cell Phone Usage by Drivers of Moving Vehicles to Hands Free (Del. Rich Anderson’s similar House bill has already been defeated. Having seen how these bills have fared in the House, it’ll be interesting to see how they do in the Senate. Here again, doesn’t hurt to contact our area Senators on Transportation to ask their support.
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