Washington State bills banning turns on red near many key locations statewide are officially dead after neither the Senate nor the House failed to move them forward before a session deadline. This is how many bills die every year, essentially running out of momentum rather than getting voted down. It’s common for an idea to take a few years of organizing and modifying before it finally makes it through, so this hopefully isn’t the end for turn on red restrictions in future years.
But there are still good things moving through the legislature. From the latest Washington Bikes newsletter:
Last week marked the House of Origin cutoff for bills to make it out of committee. Several bike safety priorities moved forward, but #WrongOnRed, the bill to make our streets safer by banning right turns on red at busy intersections, didn’t move past fiscal cutoff.
Thanks to the hundreds of you who advocated for #WrongOnRed. Despite this setback, we’re confident that we educated leaders and the public on the safety impacts of eliminating right turns on red at intersections, and think we’re closer to local-led action because of this push.
After an initial period of intense committee hearings, we’ll see a flurry of floor action over the next few weeks, where bill are voted on by the full House or Senate. After that, bills will head to the opposite chamber for committee consideration – and we’ll need your help demonstrating support for active transportation and safety.
Highlights for week 8 (Feb 27 – March 3):
- Yesterday, Monday, Feb. 27, WA Bikes priority bill, HB 1319 – legislation uniting the vehicular assault and Cooper Jones act, triggering driver’s license re-examination after a crash – sailed through its third and final reading on the House floor, with unanimous support, 96 votes for and 0 against!
- Check the updated status of our priority bills in the 2023 WA Bill Tracker.
