Four key bills supported by the Virginia Bicycling Federation will be heard this week. Please contact your legislators as indicated below. With Crossover on Feb. 4, this is the last week to get bills out of committee in their chamber of origin.
Delegate Seibold’s HB2041—to expand use of speed safety cameras to high-risk corridors (currently only allowed in school and work zones)–will heard in House Transportation on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 9 AM.
- Provide comments supporting expansion of Safety Cameras as articulated in HB2041 using a link on this page.
- Please also contact your Delegate to support HB2041 if they serve on the House Transportation Committee
- Please thank members of the House subcommittee who voted YES for HB2041 (in a 5Y 3N vote): Glass (Chair), Carr, Sewell, McClure, Feggans,
Senator Williams Graves’ SB1233–to 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–reported from Senate Transportation 9Y – 5N and will be voted on this week on the Senate floor.
- Please ask your Senator to support SB1233
- Please thank those who voted YES for SB1233 in Senate Transportation: Marsden, Hashmi, Hackworth, Bagby, Aird, Roem, Pekarsky, Mulchi, Srinivasan
Senator Surovell’s substitute SB1007–to direct NVTA to convene a stakeholder group and recommend options by Oct 1, 2025 for funding Bike & Ped projects in NoVA–reported from Transportation (14Y-0N) on Jan. 23 and re-referred to the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee which voted to report it 14Y-0N-1A on Jan. 28.
- Please ask your Senator to support SB1007 on the Senate floor.
Senator Ebbin’s SB1416 would update language in Virginia’s careless driving statute (Section §46.2-816.1) to protect “Vulnerable Road Users”, to make it more effective at holding offenders accountable. See this recent Washington Post article. The Senate Courts of Justice Committee will consider SB1416 on Jan. 29.
- Please ask your Senator to support SB1416 if they serve on this committee.
Other legislative updates
Delegate Carr’s HB2159–to expand the definition of “school crossing zone” to include areas surrounding schools where the presence of students is to be reasonably expected and expand definition of “school” to include institutions of higher education–has been assigned to House Transportation but not yet assigned to a subcommittee.
Senator Roem’s SJ260–to direct a JLARC study of maintenance of Virginia’s active transportation infrastructure–did not advance from committee. VBF will pursue other advocacy efforts to address better and more proactive maintenance of street and highway assets, particularly for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in urban and suburban communities .
Delegate Krizek’s HB2059–Virginia’s Great Outdoors Act, to 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–did not advance from the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Agriculture and Natural Resources on Jan. 22.
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 of 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 and/or voted for the bill in committee or subcommittee, please 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.
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