Breaking – we got HB2262 through!

The expected substitute for the Bicyclist Safety Act passed the Senate 21-18. Once it is approved by the House, Virginia will be getting Change Lanes to Pass and allowing riders to stay side-by-side. Virginia State Police will also convene a work group to study the Safety Stop that Virginia Bicycling Federation, among other groups, will contribute to.

This is a big moment. Over the years, most bills have taken several sessions for a bill to come to fruition. And while it may feel like a loss on the Safety Stop, we were able to get essentially 2 new bills through on the first try. Shooting for three bill elements was a bit of a heavy lift and at moments felt like we were risking progress, but it gave us room to negotiate and to use the best comparable data from around the country.

Thanks to our patrons Delegate Chris Hurst and Senator Joe Morrissey for taking the chance on this bill and doing the work to bring their peers on board. Thanks to Senator Creigh Deeds for helping get the bill over the line with the thoughtful substitute. Thanks to Senator John Edwards for supporting the bill on the floor. Thanks to several dozen tireless advocates from around the Commonwealth for dedicating literally hundreds of hours to meetings with legislators, coordinating organizing meetings (including those conflicting with Super Bowl Sunday and Valentine’s Day), generating graphics and informational content, and for staying passionate and hopeful throughout the process. Thanks to the professional lobbyists who dedicated their time helping us work through some of the stickier moments. Thank you to our partner organizations who helped draw positive response to the importance of bicycling in Virginia as a fold of their core work.

Thank YOU. If there’s someone *you* want to thank, tag them in the comments. And make sure to thank your legislators as applicable.

You can watch the floor debate, too, in case you’d like to see how some of Virginia’s senators feel about bicyclists and the uphill battle we sometimes face when fighting for improvements for our safety. [edit] The debate happens between ~1:53 and 2:17 – that’s right, over 20 minutes of debate on this bill.

~BT

Great news! The Senate version passed Senate Transportation 11-4 on Thursday. The biggest takeaways from that meeting, other than the majority vote:

• it has bipartisan support
• our safety metrics and grounded understanding of bicycle laws are proving very effective
• the dozens of hours of legislator engagement VBF has been doing since November were extremely necessary
• putting the faces and quotes of Virginia’s diverse bike population all over social media and in legislator inboxes shows the wide need for these bills

The Senate version (SB1263) of the BSA will be up for a Senate floor vote Wednesday, and the House version (HB2262) will be in subcommittee Monday with full House vote probably Friday. Because things are moving so quickly and they’re essentially being heard at the same time, it is time to really ramp up our legislators emails/call to the full Senate and full House, regardless of committee membership.

Talk to your Senator ASAP. If your delegate is on House Transportation, talk to them immediately. It has been a minute since we’ve talked about the best practices of legislator engagement, but start by being to-the-point, very polite and respectful, and making sure to tell them who you are and what organization you represent, if any. Be advised that our legislators are under a huge workload and don’t think about bicycling bills very often, this year especially. Be understanding, and thank them for their consideration. It is much easier to leave a bad impression than it is to leave a good one, so do your best.

Your email will be most impactful if you address it directly from your normal email client personally. You can find your legislator here, and a list of emails for them can be found here.

But if you’re trying to get this done in a few clicks, the League of American Bicyclists and Bike Walk RVA each have an email platform you can click through to use. Please share these links on your social media, in your bike-y listservs, etc.

Talking points: you can find our FAQ here with lots of perspective to share with your legislator. If you want to tailor it a bit, you should focus on the real-world specifics of how riding two abreast and the Safety Stop will both prevent crashes AND increase car traffic flow. These are about the only negatives we’ve heard, and so far those oppositional talking points haven’t been impenetrable.

Thanks for all your effort so far. If we have continued success with the BSA, the bills will cross over to each’s respective other house on February 5, and we’ll do this all over again. The back half is usually a bit quicker since the bills have all been seen by nature of us having a patron in each house already. But we’ve got lots of ground to cover, and thanks in advance for keeping the energy up.

~BT

Our friends and peers at the League of American Bicyclists have offered this simple email platform to use to email your Senators and Delegates. Click the image below.

Email early and share often!

Click to be directed to the email action service. It’s best if you customize your message before sending. Tell a very brief personal story to make your testimony seem real and genuine.

~BT

New co-patrons

We are working with anticipation as the Bicyclist Safety Act is gaining momentum ahead of its first committee meetings. As supportive messages are starting to trickle in, we have gotten new co-patrons for each bill. This shows that leadership in each house has taken notice of the BSA and folks are joining on for the effort.

Senator Morrissey’s bill, SB1263, is now co-patroned by Senator Boysko and Delegate Rasoul.

Delegate Hurst’s bill, HB2262, is no co-patroned by Senator Surovell and Delegates Hudson and Simonds. [continue reading…]