Update on transportation bills in Olympia: What’s dead and what’s still got a chance

Non-budgetary bills in the Washington legislature had until yesterday to pass in at least one chamber in order to remain on track for passage into law. We wrote about a few transportation-related efforts Tuesday, so how did they do?

Well, it's a mixed bag. Heidi Groover has a longer list over at the Seattle Times. Below are some highlights:

We are really disappointed that #HB1793, the traffic safety camera legislation, isn't getting passed this year. But we know we've educated a lot of people about the dangers of #BlockingTheBox. Our video reached 1.5 million people on Facebook, viewed over 60K times on Twitter.

- Rooted in Rights (@rootedinrights) March 14, 2019

• DEAD: HB 1793 - Bill to allow automated enforcement of illegal bus lane driving and "blocking the box." Disability rights group Rooted in Rights has done a great job leading on this bill, including this fantastic video explaining the need. A combination of resistance to traffic cameras and worries about unequal enforcement did it in. Failure possibly shows the need for more intersectional organizing to promote automated enforcement as a better and more fair alternative to police enforcement. This felt very close, and it was very cool to see Rooted in Rights and Transportation Choices Coalition team up the way they did to promote it. It didn't win this time, but they made a powerful team. Also, the next version should also look into including bike lane blockages along with bus lanes and "blocking the box."
• ALIVE: SB 5723/HB 1966 - Revising the Vulnerable Road User Law. We wrote about this bill in depth earlier this week. It is way ahead of schedule, with both the House and Senate already passing companion versions of the bill. One of these two bills still needs approval by the other chamber, but the Senate vote was unanimous and the House vote was 61-36. So this is looking very good.
• DEAD: SB 5104 - Prohibit local jurisdictions from imposing tolls. This is essentially the state trying to make sure no community can experiment with congestion pricing.
• DEAD: SB 5299 - A DUI could become a felony if the offender has had three or more DUIs within 15 years, five years longer than the current ten years.
• ALIVE: HB 1772 - Update definitions and add regulation details for electric foot scooters. It is way ahead, having already passed the House 85-13. It still needs Senate approval.
• ALIVE: SB 5971, SB 5972, SB 5970 - These bills make up the $16 billion transportation package Senator Hobbs has proposed. As the Urbanist has reported, this package is filled with highways, even leveling a carbon fee to pay for them. This is all backwards, since transportation and highways are a top cause of greenhouse gas emissions in our state. And don't get me started on the proposed bicycle tax (that will need to be the subject of a longer post"). This package should die and come back in a future session in a form that invests in building a better future rather than the gas-powered highway vision of the last century. As a budgetary package, it operates on a difference schedule than the other bills. So even though it still has not passed either chamber, it is still alive.