Last week was the first full week of the 2025 Virginia General Assembly session. This is a “short” session, which generally lasts for 45 calendar days, as opposed to a “long” session, which lasts 60 calendar days.  Bills must pass their respective committee and chamber by Crossover (February 4) to remain viable. Here are key initiatives led or supported by the Virginia Bicycling Federation. Please contact your legislators as indicated below.

Senator Roem’s SJ260 seeks to assess the maintenance of Virginia’s active transportation infrastructure. It would direct a comprehensive study to examine VDOT policies and funding allocations for the maintenance of highways, bridges, sidewalks, bicycle paths and lanes, shared-use paths, and other surface transportation infrastructure. Status: Assigned to Senate Rules Committee, so we ask that you contact your Senator to strongly support this initiative if they serve on this committee.  View our SJ260 talking points.

Senator Surovell’s SB1007 would  provide new, dedicated  revenue to expand   active mobility and safety infrastructure  in Northern Virginia. This initiative would impose an annual $0.50 tax on each parking space in any private off-street parking facility with revenue supporting a new Bicycle, Pedestrian, and Safety Improvements Infrastructure Fund. Status: Assigned to Senate Transportation Committee, so we ask that you contact your Senator to strongly support this initiative if they serve on this committee.

Delegate Krizek’s HB2059, Virginia’s Great Outdoors Act, would allocate no less than $200M of recordation tax revenues for specified land protection and preservation purposes, including 12.5% to DCR to establish a statewide system of trails and 12.5% to VDOT for regional multi-use trails. Status: Assigned to House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Agriculture and Natural Resources, so we ask that you contact your Delegate to strongly support this initiative if they serve on this committee.

Several bills would expand Virginia’s existing safety camera enforcement program:

  • Delegate Jones’ HB1666 and Delegate Seibold’s HB2041 – Expand use of speed safety cameras (currently only allowed in school and work zones) to high-risk corridors.
  • Delegate Jones’ HB1673 and Senator Williams Graves’ SB1233 – Allow use of photo enforcement for crosswalk and stop sign violations (not just speed violations) at school crossing zones, highway work zones, and high-risk intersections.
  • Delegate Carr’s HB2159 – Expands the definition of “school crossing zone” to include areas surroundhttps://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20251/HB1664/text/HB1664ing schools where the presence of students is to be reasonably expected and expands definition of “school” to include institutions of higher education.

Senator Ebbin’s SB1416 –  Updates language in Virginia’s careless driving statute to protect “Vulnerable Road Users”  (Section §46.2-816.1) to make it more effective at holding offenders accountable. See this recent Washington Post article.

Four speed-safety-camera House bills, HB1666, HB1673, HB2041 (all listed above) plus HB1664 (Jones) are on the House Transportation, Innovations Subcommittee docket for the late afternoon of Wednesday, January 22.

Four Senate bills, SB1007, SB1233, SB1416 (all listed above) plus SB776 (Surovell, to allow state and local police to enforce federal traffic violations in NoVA) are on the Senate Transportation Committee docket for the afternoon of Thursday, January 23.

How can you take action?

We ask that you reach out to your Delegate and/or Senator if they serve on a committee or subcommittee that will vote on one of the bills above. If you are unsure who your legislators are, enter your address here.

You can check a bill’s status by clicking on the bill’s link above.

To determine if your legislator is a member ohttps://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20251/SB1233/text/SB1233f the respective committee (or subcommittee), click on the applicable committee/subcommittee link to see the list of members. Members’ names are listed and linked to web pages with their email addresses and phone numbers.

If one of the committee members is your legislator, please call or write them a short note encouraging their support. (If they sponsored the bill, you can thank them).

With the short session, and Crossover on February 4, bills will move quickly through the legislative process. Best to check committee pages directly, but we’ll also do our best to provide updates at least weekly here.