On February 11, BikeNewton sent four members of its steering committee – John Pelletier, Jane Hanser, Nathan Phillips, and Doug Cornelius – to the State House for MassBike’s second Lobby Day, when cycling advocates meet with their legislators.
MassBike Lobby Day has four goals:
- Build relationships with legislators
- Gather support for bike-friendly bills,
- Discover what’s important to the legislators , and
- Create more bike-friendly momentum on Beacon Hill.
First up was a joint session with Newton’s new state representatives: Amy Sangiolo and Greg Schwartz. As new legislators, they are still waiting for office assignments. The less-than-luxurious accommodations were not a deterrent to hearing from their constituents or listening intently to their concerns.
The BikeNewton group discussed a few of the filed bills for the legislative secession with the state representatives. The discussion focused on the Governor’s proposed 50% increase in Chapter 90 funds to be tied to safety measures, such as speed management, and creating infrastructure for people on foot, on bike, and with accessibility needs. It also included BikeNewton’s support for SD.1495 and HD.3053, which would allow traffic regulation with road safety cameras to increase roadway safety through automated enforcement. As for truck safety, BikeNewton discussed SD.801 and HD.3225 to expand truck safety requirements, requiring more trucks to be equipped with side guards to protect vulnerable road users from large vehicles.
The state representatives expressed support for HD.1812, which would expand protections for vulnerable road users at road crossings. This would allow cyclists to cross roads in crosswalks, yielding to pedestrians. Bike Newton noted that this change would help stitch together bike trails and more importantly, would allow kids to cross more safely on the way to school.
SD.1799 and HD. 3371 are both intended to create a definition of Class 3 electric bicycles in Massachusetts, to be more in line with Federal Guidelines, which define a Class 3 electric bicycle.
Perhaps the most controversial bill was HD.2737, which would allow the “Idaho Stop.” This would allow cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs and to treat red lights as stop signs. Although controversial, it has been enacted in several states and produced solid data that it improves traffic safety.
After a meeting with the state representatives, the BikeNewton group joined its counterpart, Biking Brookline, to meet with Garrett Casey, Policy Director and Counsel in the Office of State Senator Cindy Creem.
Senator Creem has proposed a key bill, SD. 1327: An Act aligning the Commonwealth’s transportation plans with its mandates and goals for reducing emissions and vehicle miles traveled. This legislation would ensure that all transportation plans passed by the Regional Planning Organizations and the MassDOT must meet the State’s climate goals by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled.
It is early in the legislative calendar. These bills still need to go through committee assignments, public hearings, and pass through many procedural hurdles.
Doug Cornelius is a member of the steering committee of Bike Newton and Board Chair of MassBike.