As Craig mentioned earlier this week, the gun has fired on the 2012 legislative session, and we are out of the saddle, cranking away at our priorities for the year. It’s a short session, which means we only have 60 days to accomplish what we want to get done – it also means we need your help more than ever to get us across the finish line victorious.
The first bill to break away from the pack is likely to be the Neighborhood Safe Speeds Bill (SHB 1217). SHB 1217 makes streets and neighborhoods safer by giving cities and towns the freedom to set speed limits to 20 miles per hour on non-arterial streets without a costly engineering and traffic study. It doesn’t mandate this change, but it does provide cities and towns the authority to do so without requiring a costly engineering or traffic study. If you would like more details – and reasons to support the bill – check out the one-pager published by the Bicycle Alliance of Washington (BAW).
This is a great bill and darn near everyone knows it – including our elected officials. Last year, thanks to the hard work of the BAW, the Neighborhood Safe Speeds Bill passed 92-0 out of the House. Nobody voted against it and only six representatives were absent – it was unanimous!
But it’s a new year and a new session and much has happened in Olympia since last February.
That is exactly why we need to remind our elected official now – in the first week of session – that SHB 1217 is a no-brainer. There’s a lot going on down there in the next 60 days and if we want to win we need to make our voices heard loud, early, and often.
And thank you for your good work.
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