Neighborhood Safe Streets bill passes in the House

The Neighborhood Safe Streets bill (HB 1045/SB 5066) passed the State House yesterday with a vote of 86-10.

The bill passed the Senate Transportation Committee unanimously earlier this month and should get a vote in the full Senate in the next week or two.

If passed, the bill will give cities and towns the authority to set speed limits to 20 miles per hour on non‐arterial streets without a costly engineering study.

The bill does not mandate any change, it simply provides cities and towns the local control to do so without being limited by traffic and engineering studies, which are costly and time consuming.

“Neighborhoods are one step closer to being safer,” said Matthew Green, Legislative Affairs Manager at Cascade Bicycle Club. “The bill is moving well and it brought bipartisan support to give local communities one more option to make their streets safer.”