Amendments were flying today in Senate Transportation as HB1402, Delegate Loupassi of Richmond’s bill to provide that cities and towns would not lose their highway maintenance payments from VDOT if they converted travel lanes to transit or bicycle lanes was being heard.
I’m not absolutely positive what the final bill will look like until I see it in writing, but my take on what ended up being Reported unanimously contained amendments — to make it apply only to Richmond; then to put a one year “Sunset” date of 7/1/16 on it; then (after a number of witnesses from other jurisdictions strongly testified that it was needed statewide to eliminate the current disincentive to convert travel lanes to bike lanes) an amendment from Sen. Barbara Favola of Fairfax was passed to expand the scope of the bill to the entire state; then, finally to refer the entire matter to further Study by the Secretary of Transportation’s staff to be taken up again next year.
If I’m incorrect, I’ll clarify the situation, but I think the bottom line is — Richmond only, for transit and bike lanes, for one year, then the entire statewide situation to be revisited in the next legislative session.
Meanwhile, on the House floor, SB781, the “Crossing the Double Yellow Line” bill, had second reading today and should be up for third reading and a vote tomorrow, so this is your last chance to get on board a ship that is “sailing through” by sending a request for support to your Delegate tonight or tomorrow morning prior to tomorrow’s vote, if you haven’t done so already.
In deference to the snowy conditions in the area, House Transportation Committee was scheduled to convene an hour later, at 9:30 and all but two of the Delegates were present.
Reconsideration of the Dooring bill/SB882 was not granted, so its defeat in SubCommittee by a 4-3 vote stands.
The Crossing the Double Yellow Line bill/SB781 was reported to the Committee by SubCommittee2 Chair Garrett, without the Patron or either of the Co-Patrons present. Following Chairman Rust’s practice of giving great weight to the bill’s result in SubCommittee, and not wanting to hear witnesses testify if they had done so in SubCommittee, no witnesses spoke. There was minimal discussion by Committee members, primarily by Del. Habeeb (who I think is the only attorney on the Committee) as to the possible legal consequences for unsafely crossing the line, and by Del. Hugo as to how difficult it is to safely pass the increasing number of cyclists on the country roads in his area without crossing the line, which was why he supported the bill. There being no other comments by Committee members, Del. Garrett moved to Report the bill, which carried by a 19-1 vote, with Dr. Garrett himself being the only one in opposition. Later, the two absent members’ proxies were tallied, making the official count 21-1 as the bill goes on to the House Floor for final passage.
Now, everyone has a Delegate who will be voting, and this is your chance to get in the game and ask their support. If you don’t know who they are, or their Email, go to VirginiaGeneralAssembly.gov and click on the box at the top of the page “Who’s my Legislator?”
Thanks to everyone who took the trouble to make contacts along the way, as we appear to have had a very successful Legislative session!
Bud Vye Advocacy Director RABA & VBF
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
After getting a pleasant surprise yesterday, while expecting Sen. Reeves’ SB1220/Following Too Closely to go into House Transportation SubCommittee2 next Monday, we learned instead that it had bypassed Sub2 and been heard directly in House Transportation yesterday morning, where it was reported by a 19-3 vote, with only Delegates Hugo (Prince William) & Austin (Bedford) joining Scott Garrett (Lynchburg) in opposing it. Now it goes on to the House Floor, where final passage should happen later this week.
Del. De Steph’s identical House Bill 1342 was handled this afternoon in Senate Transportation by being included in a bloc with several other bills that had identical versions on the Senate side, and the bloc was reported unanimously without any discussion. Now it goes on to the Senate floor for final passage which should also happen later this week.
The other bill we were interested in that was on the Senate Trans docket this afternoon, Del. Loupassi’s HB1402 which would permit VDOT maintenance reimbursement to Cities and Towns for lane miles that are converted to bike or transit lanes did generate some discussion. After some back and forth it was “Passed by for the Day”, with the patron and Transportation Dept. officials being directed to discuss it further with the Senators who had concerns about its language so that some changes could be made prior to the bill being heard again next Wednesday.
Prior to that, we have only SB781 “Crossing the Double Yellow Line” and SB882 “the Dooring bill”, both of which will be heard in House Trans Sub2 next Monday. As usual, we can use the help of our Northern VA folks to ask Del. LeMunyon’s support and our Hampton Roads folks to ask Del. Taylor’s so we can get these bills out of this SubCommittee, which would appear to be our last major obstacle.
These bills have already been passed by the House. They stand a good chance of becoming law if we can get them through the Senate Transportation Committee, which meets mid-afternoon on Wednesday.
Especially if your senator is listed below, please email or call their office by Wednesday morning, and ask them to support these bills.
Bud Vye writes:
A big docket in Senate Transportation Committee tomorrow after lunch includes our two House bills that have passed the House and Crossed Over to the Senate —
HB 1342 Del DeSteph’s “Following Too Closely”
& HB 1402 Del. Loupassi’s “Maintenance Reimbursement for Lanes that are used for Bike Lanes or Bus Rapid Transit” (preserves maintenance funding based on lane-miles when road diets are implemented)
Northern Virginia folks should contact Senators…
- Marsden 804 698 7537 or district37@senate.virginia.gov, Colgan 804 698 7529 or district29@senate.virginia.gov,
- Favola 804 698 7531 or district31@senate.virginia.gov and
- Wexton 804 698-7533 or district33@senate.virginia.gov
…(particularly if they are YOUR Senators) and ask them to SUPPORT these bills tomorrow afternoon.
Similarly, Hampton Roads folks should contact Senators…
- Wagner 804 698 7507 or district07@senate.virginia.gov,
- McWaters 804 698 7508 or district08@senate.virginia.gov,
- Alexander 804 698 7505 or district 05@senate.virginia.gov,
- & Cosgrove 804 698 7514 or district14@senate.virginia.gov
…and ask their support.
Also on the Committee from around the state are Senators…
- Newman (Lynchburg) 698-7523 or district23@senate.virginia.gov,
- Deeds (Charlottesville) 804 698 7525 or district25@senate.virginia.gov,
- Smith (Roanoke) 804 698 7519 or district19@senate.virginia.gov &
- Edwards (Roanoke) 804 698 7521 or district21@senate.virginia.gov
Stay with us! We’re making progress and we can see the finish line for these bills if we can clear this hurdle tomorrow.
Bud Vye