{"id":2514,"date":"2025-01-11T22:54:08","date_gmt":"2025-01-12T03:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.activepw.org\/?p=2514"},"modified":"2025-01-11T23:06:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-12T04:06:18","slug":"virginia-bicycling-federations-2025-legislative-asks-presented-to-prince-william-legislators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.activepw.org\/?p=2514","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Bicycling Federation’s 2025 Legislative Asks Presented to Prince William Legislators"},"content":{"rendered":"

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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.\u00a0 Active Prince William Co-Chair <\/em>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.
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Prince William State Legislative Delegation Pre-Session Virtual Town Hall, December 19, 2024, Statement of Allen Muchnick, Virginia Bicycling Federation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Good evening.\u00a0 I\u2019m Allen Muchnick.\u00a0 I live in the City of Manassas, and I\u2019m a long-time board member of the Virginia Bicycling Federation.<\/p>\n

In recent years, the Virginia Bicycling Federation has focused on reforming Virginia\u2019s traffic laws to improve the safety and comfort of people bicycling on Virginia\u2019s roadways.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Expanding the local authority for automated speed enforcement would be an effective way to reduce our current epidemic of traffic violence, especially pedestrian fatalities.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We hope this expanded authority is enacted in 2025.<\/p>\n

For the 2025 Session, the Virginia Bicycling Federation is currently seeking patrons to carry three pre-filed bills:<\/p>\n