Advancing active mobility in greater Prince William, Virginia

Tag: Virginia General Assembly (Page 1 of 2)

Virginia Bicycling Federation’s 2025 Legislative Asks Presented to Prince William Legislators

On December 19, 2024, the nine members of Prince William’s state legislative delegation depicted above held a pre-session town hall meeting to discuss their individual priorities for the coming legislative session and to hear from their constituents.  Active Prince William Co-Chair Allen Muchnick, who has also served on the Virginia Bicycling Federation’s board of directors since 1994, presented the statement below to summarize the Federation’s current state legislative priorities.


Prince William State Legislative Delegation Pre-Session Virtual Town Hall, December 19, 2024, Statement of Allen Muchnick, Virginia Bicycling Federation

Good evening.  I’m Allen Muchnick.  I live in the City of Manassas, and I’m a long-time board member of the Virginia Bicycling Federation.

In recent years, the Virginia Bicycling Federation has focused on reforming Virginia’s traffic laws to improve the safety and comfort of people bicycling on Virginia’s roadways.  Specifically, we have sought to remove dangerous and needless restrictions on bicycling two-abreast within a standard travel lane, to allow bike riders to treat stop signs as yield signs under limited circumstances, and to allow bike riders to start crossing a signalized intersection with the pedestrian Walk signal.  Between legislative sessions, we met with VDOT and State Police representatives to find common ground and iron out bill language, and our bills have been well supported by the House and Senate Democrats.   However, due to strong opposition emanating from the current Secretary of Transportation near the end of the 2024 session, we are not seeking such legislation for the coming Session.

Expanding the local authority for automated speed enforcement would be an effective way to reduce our current epidemic of traffic violence, especially pedestrian fatalities.  With the increased use of speed cameras in school zones across Virginia, support has grown to allow automated speed enforcement at any high-crash location.  We hope this expanded authority is enacted in 2025.

For the 2025 Session, the Virginia Bicycling Federation is currently seeking patrons to carry three pre-filed bills:

  • A bill to establish point-of-sale rebates for electric-assisted bicycle purchases has been pre-filed by Delegate Thomas, who patroned a similar bill in 2024.  E-bike rebates are currently in place in 10 states, and this bill, like others, would focus the rebate on low-income individuals.  E-bikes have been found to effectively replace many local motor vehicle trips and to expand mobility options for low-income households.
  • A second bill would tweak Virginia’s bicycling laws to overcome VDOT’s current objection to installing bicycle signals on two-way cycle tracks and shared-use paths.
  • Finally, we seek an authoritative study by JLARC (or possibly the Virginia Transportation Research Council) to prompt VDOT to adequately and proactively maintain its pedestrian and bicycle facilities. To this day, VDOT has no dedicated funding or asset management program to adequately maintain its pedestrian and bicycle facilities, and it’s been 22 years since JLARC last completed a comprehensive assessment of VDOT’s highway maintenance and operations programs.

Thank you for your consideration and for this public comment opportunity.

 

PWC General Assembly Delegation’s Pre-Session Legislative Forum, Saturday, January 7, 2023, 3-4:30 PM

The greater Prince William County delegation to the Virginia General Assembly will hold a public forum in advance of its 2023 Legislative Session on Saturday January 7, 2023, 3:00-4:30 PM, at the James J. McCoart Administration Building. You can both signup and submit your questions early at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScjIvx1d-lHdFEYFZ9z03NI_k94BgqwQ9oUPGfgmaXzBcn6SQ/vie

Pre-Session State Legislative Town Hall for Greater Prince William, Saturday, December 18, 2021, 9:00-11:30 AM

The Virginia General Assembly delegation for greater Prince William will host a Pre-Session Legislative Town Hall this Saturday, December 18, 2021 from 9:00-11:30 am at the McCoart Building, 1 County Complex Ct., Woodbridge, VA 22192You can register at bit.ly/pwc1218 .  Questions will be answered in the order they are received. Accommodation requests can be sent via email to [email protected] .

Advocacy for Bicycle-Related Legislation in the 2021 Virginia General Assembly

Active Prince William board member Allen Muchnick delivered the following personal statement to the Prince William Delegation to the Virginia General Assembly on January 9, 2021.   Some of the comments below have not been officially endorsed by either Active Prince William or the Virginia Bicycling Federation.


Statement to the Prince William Delegation to the Virginia General Assembly January 9, 2021, by Allen Muchnick, Manassas Resident

I’m Allen Muchnick, a City of Manassas resident. I’ve been a board member of the Virginia Bicycling Federation since 1994 and co-founded Active Prince William five years ago.

Both organizations seek safer and more pleasant walking and bicycling and improved justice for pedestrians and bicyclists injured by negligent motorists.

Thank you for passing a wide range of long-delayed progressive legislation in 2020.  We sincerely appreciate the just-implemented ban on using handheld electronic communication devices while driving a motor vehicle, requiring motorists to stop—not merely yield—to persons in crosswalks, establishing a traffic infraction for motorists who negligently injure a pedestrian or bicyclist, and authorizing automated speed cameras at schools and highway work zones.

Legislative changes that we support for the 2021 session include 1) expanding the authorization for automated speed cameras to include residential and business districts, 2) allowing localities to impose urban speed limits below 25 MPH in residential and business districts, and 3) lessening contributory negligence limitations for pedestrians and bicyclists injured in traffic crashes.

We also seek three changes to Virginia’s bicycling laws to increase the safety, comfort, and ease of bicycling.   The bicyclist safety stop would allow bicyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs as long as they yield to all closely approaching cross-traffic.   Stop signs are often installed in lieu of yield signs due to the danger of rolling stops by motorists and as a neighborhood traffic-calming measure. Because bicyclists are generally slower and not inside a vehicle, they can more readily observe and yield to cross-traffic without fully stopping. When bicyclists fully stop their balance is unstable, their effort is greater, and they take longer to clear intersections.  Thus, bicycling injuries have been found to decrease after states have implemented the bicyclist safety stop.

Two related changes would allow bicyclists to ride two abreast at all times and prohibit motorists from passing bicyclists within the same travel lane.  Motorists rear-ending or side-swiping bicyclists is a major cause (ca. 40%) of bicycling fatalities.  Bicyclists riding two-abreast are much more visible to following motorists.  Requiring motorists to execute a full lane change before passing a bicyclist is more understandable to drivers and much easier for police to enforce.

Please ensure that state-funded Potomac River crossing expansions at the American Legion Bridge and at the Long Bridge include substantial bicycle and pedestrian elements, that standalone bicycling and walking improvements are fully eligible for all relevant state and regional transportation funding programs, and that the ban on Sunday hunting on public lands is preserved.  

Thank you for your service and best wishes for a productive legislative session.

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Virginia Legislative Town Hall Meeting, Sunday, January 27, 2-4 PM, in Woodbridge

Join State Senators Scott Surovell and Jeremy McPike and State Delegates Luke Torian and Jennifer Carroll Foy for a town hall meeting to discuss the 46-day 2019 session of the Virginia General Assembly, which is now well underway.

The meeting will be held on Sunday, January 27, from 2-4 PM, at the Ferlazzo Building, 15941 Donald Curtis Dr, Woodbridge, Virginia 22191

The legislators will present updates on the 2019 General Assembly Session and listen to citizens’ questions and priorities.

Find these legislators on Twitter at @JCarrollFoy, @ssurovell, @DelegateTorian and @JeremyMcPike

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