Legislative Update 2/16/15 — ‘Dooring’ Dies in Subcommittee, ‘Crossing the Double Yellow’ Gets Through

One for two in House Trans Sub 2 this morning starting at 6:55 a.m. as Sen. Chap Petersen went first with the “Dooring” bill (SB882) and gave a good presentation, followed by VBF support, only to go down by a 3-4 vote, with Carr, Ward, & LeMunyon voting Aye, and Taylor, Austin, and Pillion joining Chairman Garrett in opposition. After the hearing, we asked Sen. Petersen if he would request a reconsideration before the Full House Transportation Committee and he agreed to do so to Del. Rust of Herndon, the Chair of the full committee. If granted, the bill would then be heard by the full committee tomorrow morning at 8:30.

Next up was SB781, the “Crossing the Double Yellow Line” bill, now in its amended form to include the ability to also cross a solid line with a broken line on the opposite side of it. Co-Patron Sen. Reeves began the presentation of the bill, and then was joined by the Patron Sen. Alexander, both of whom gave strong support. After some discussion, including questions of Capt. Glick (the representative of the State Police), who supported the bill and was asked how it would be enforced, answering with a “Reckless Driving” citation if the crossing of the line was observed to be an unsafe one, and then comments by Chairman Garrett who indicated that “we would not be having this discussion if we had not passed the Three Foot Passing bill last year”, there was a move to Report, which passed by a 6-1 vote, with only Chairman Garrett voting Nay. Now the bill goes on to the Full House Transportation Committee tomorrow at 8:30.

Requests by constituents to their Trans Comm members to Support the bill tomorrow will definitely be helpful:

• Chairman Rust — Herndon deltrust@house.virginia.gov
• Vice Chairman Villanueva — VaBeach delrvillanueva@house.virginia.gov
• Hugo — Prince William delthugo@house.virginia.gov
• Scott — Culpeper delescott@house.virginia.gov
• Habeeb — Salem delghabeeb@house.virginia.gov
• Anderson — Woodbridge delranderson@house.virginia.gov
• Minchew — Leesburg delrminchew@house.virginia.gov
• Yancey — NewportNews deldyancey@house.virginia.gov
• LeMunyon — Chantilly deljlemunyon@house.virginia.gov (w/thanks for support in subcommittee)
• Davis — VaBeach delgdavis@house.virginia.gov
• Taylor — VaBeach delstaylor@house.virginai.gov (w/thanks for support in subcommittee)
• Austin — Bedford deltaustin@house.virginia.gov (w/thanks for support in subcommittee)
• LaRock — Hamilton deldlarock@house.virginia.gov
• Pillion — Abingdon deltpillion@house.virginia.gov (w/thanks for support in subcommittee)
• Ward — Newport News deljward@house.virginia.gov (w/thanks for support in subcommittee)
• Carr — Richmond delbcarr@house.virginia.gov (w/thanks for support in subcommittee)
• McQuinn — Richmond deldmcquinn@house.virginia.gov
• BaCote — Newport News delmbacote@house.virginia.gov
• Toscano — Charlottesville deldtoscano@house.virginia.gov
• Filler-Corn — Springfield delefiller-corn@house.virginia.gov
• Plum — Reston delkplum@house.virginia.gov

Related Articles:

• 2015 Legislative Recap
• Legislative Update 2/17/15 — ‘Crossing the Double Yellow’ Clears Full House Transpo Committee
• Legislative Update 2/11/15 — ‘Following Too Closely’ Clears Senate Committee; ‘Maintenance Funding for Road Diets’ Still in the Works
• Legislative Update 2/3/15 — Moped Bill Dies, Contact Your Legislators About ‘Dooring’ & ‘Crossing the Double Yellow’
• Legislative Update 1/26/15: ‘Dooring’ & ‘Crossing the Double Yellow’ Pass Senate; ‘Stop For Peds’ Tabled