2019 Legislative Session Bill Tracker

This bill would allot cities in Washington State to use automated enforcement (photographs) to help keep bus lanes clear for buses, crosswalks clear for people, and ensure traffic can flow through intersections when the light turns green. We strongly support this legislation because when drivers block intersections, and weave in and out of bus lanes, it makes the streets more dangerous for everyone and increases congestion and delay. Check out Rooted in Rights’ video Don’t Block the Box, which looks at the impacts of block intersections on people who use wheelchairs.

Update 3/11: The House Transportation Committee voted HB 1793 out of committee. The bill is now in the House Rules Committee. Fill out our Action Alert to tell your legislators to support safe streets and bring HB 1793 to a vote by March 13.

Update 3/13: Bill did not pass off the House floor before cutoff.

Update 4/15: The bill passed the House floor! The House of Representatives passed HB 1793, the traffic safety camera legislation. The bill is now headed to the Senate! We are thankful for Representative Fitzgibbon and Representative Fey’s leadership, and to all the representatives who voted for improved safety and mobility last night. We have worked tirelessly with Rooted in Rights and other partners and allies to keep this bill moving forward. Now we are one step closer to creating safe and accessible streets and improved mobility for all people in downtown Seattle. Cars blocking intersections and bus lanes don’t only block traffic and delay transit, they endanger the lives of pedestrians. When crosswalks are blocked, people walking or using mobility devices are forced to navigate around cars and into moving traffic lanes.

TCC and Rooted in Rights have worked with the ACLU of Washington to draft a policy that achieves the goals of this legislation while protecting vulnerable communities. The new legislation is a two-year pilot for downtown Seattle and includes a grace period where folks get cited with a warning. There’s still more work to do — we need to pass HB 1793 out of the Senate. We will have an updated action alert soon.

A massive bill related to tolling authority, construction and bonding for I-405, SR, 167, and SR 509. This legislation is critical to implementing the I-405 bus rapid transit project, to pay for needed improvements, as well as for further managing the congested highway system. We are working hard to support this bill, as well as to better understand how to reduce the burden of tolls on low-income drivers by requesting funds for a low-income tolling study. Check out the details we are working to include with our low-income tolling study one pager here.

Update 4/17: Placed on second reading by Senate Rules Committee

This bill requires regional transportation planning organizations that receive state funds provide opportunity for federally recognized tribes to vote as members.

Update 4/18: Delivered to the Governor.

Increases fines for HOV violations, allows for an additive fine for using a doll/dummy.

Update 4/9/2019: Referred to House Rules Committee.

Allows for the permission to release driver abstracts to transit authorities is expanded to include existing volunteer vanpool drivers.

Update 4/17: Delivered to Governor.

Bill increases penalties for crashing into pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable users.

Update 4/22/2019: Passed Senate, waiting to be signed by Governor.

Supports continued work by the bicycle and pedestrian safety councils.

This bill would reward producers that create and use cleaner fuels. This bill is a priority for our climate partners, as the transportation sector is a major emitter of greenhouse gases. California, Oregon and British Columbia have all implemented have some form of fuel standard policy.

The Department of Ecology would implement a program to limit greenhouse gas emissions per unit of transportation fuel energy to 10% below 2017 levels by 2028 and 20% below 2017 levels by 2035.

This bill provides discounted toll rates on certain facilities for low-income individuals. We are glad that the legislature is taking the important step to ensure that the benefits of tolled facilities are open to all and to recognize the disproportionate financial impact tolls can have on lower-income individuals and families. We want to ensure that a discount program applies to low-income drivers across the state, regardless of which facility they use, and that the program is carefully created to ensure agency coordination, smooth customer experience, and address any additional barriers that underrepresented groups may face in using the toll system.

Update 3/1: We worked with the legislators to turn the bill into a low-income toll study to understand the financial and other equity impacts of tolling, and barriers to the benefits of tolling on frontline communities. Referred to House Rules Committee.

Update 3/13: Bill did not make it off the House floor before cutoff.

The Healthy Environment for All bill will define environmental justice and require state agencies to use environmental health disparity data to make decisions about investments and policy development. It also creates a deadline for a 100 percent clean energy commitment in the state and prioritizes clean energy investments in communities highly impacted by environmental burdens. This builds on our goals to build healthy and just communities and we appreciate the leadership of Front and Centered on this bill.

Update 4/10/2019: Passed out of House Committee on Appropriations and referred to House Rules Committee.

This bill will eliminate barriers to voting. Since the state doesn’t fund a lot of transit, local jurisdictions rely on ballot measures for transit funding. This will make it easier for people to participate in the democratic process.

This bill would allow transit agencies to manage the parking at park-and-ride lots owned by WSDOT. Currently, if WSDOT owns the lot, there is no mechanism for local jurisdictions to enforce the parking, even if someone has been parked for days on end. We support this legislation as it will allow agencies to better manage parking and provide broader access to transit. In addition, the revenues can be put back into improving all types of access to park-and-rides. TCC has advocated for better managed parking here in King County, and this would allow areas such as Kitsap — where the park-and-rides are at highest capacity in the state — to manage its lots as well.

Update 3/13: Bill did not make it off the Senate floor.

We are in conversation with legislators about electrification of the transportation sector, including discussion of a new electric vehicle (EV) incentive. TCC aims to ensure any new incentive proposals, such as SB 5336, provide a break to lower income EV buyers, and that funding does not hurt other strategies for reducing transportation emissions, such as mass transit, walking and biking projects.

Update 2/28: Referred to House Rules Committee.

Update 3/13: Scheduled for public hearing in the Senate Committee on Ways & Means at 3:30 PM on March 19.

Our policy goals for this new transportation package is to increase investments in the State’s multimodal account to fund more transit, walking, and biking projects, and grant programs like Safe Routes to School and special needs transit.

We appreciate the support for transportation demand management programming and want to see further support for foundational commute trip reduction (CTR) programs, expanded programming, and broadening CTR to include non-commute trips. We believe CTR programs can be expanded to include small businesses, minority-owned businesses, and employees with non-traditional hours. We also appreciated the proposal’s continued base support for multimodal transportation, though investments need to grow beyond previous years in order to achieve our goals around health, opportunity, and equity. This transportation package should center transportation equity and low-income communities and communities of color, as well as addressing emissions in the transportation sector.

Discussions around a new package will likely outlast this session. TCC’s overall priority is to grow investments in the multimodal account.

The legislation focuses heavily on supporting vehicle electrification, for personal vehicles, business fleets as well as transit. TCC is generally supportive of these efforts, and we have been working with partners including Climate Solutions to offer amendments to make EV incentives available to low- and middle-income buyers over wealthy buyers. However we remain fully opposed to using funding from the multimodal account to help fund sales and use tax refunds for the purchase of private electric vehicles.

Update 3/11: Scheduled for executive session in the House Committee on Transportation at 3:30 on Wednesday, March 14.

Update 3/13: Scheduled for executive session in the House Committee on Transportation at 3:30 PM on March 20.

The legislature is beginning to consider the Governor’s proposed budget. The House Transportation Committee held a hearing on the transportation appropriations budget. TCC supports increasing investments in transit, biking, walking, as well as in the State’s Commute Trip Reduction program, as well as funding a Health Impact Assessment related to the State’s autonomous vehicle work, as well as a low-income tolling study.

A road usage charge is a mileage-based fee for the use of our state’s roadways. Recognizing that gas tax revenues are projected to decline, Washington is testing the feasibility of road usage charges as a new model for funding transportation, and it’s important that we continue to keep this option open. Contrary to popular belief, a mileage-based charging mechanism should not disproportionately impact those driving long distances in rural areas compared to the gas tax —  you pay more the more you drive either way, but a gas tax favors those who can afford more expensive fuel-efficient vehicles.

Update 3/13: Did not make it off the Senate floor.

We believe that local jurisdictions should have the ability and flexibility to decide how they want to fund transportation and have tools to address their specific needs. Vehicle tolling is just one option for managing roadways and paying for projects that increase mobility and accessibility.

Update 3/13: Bill did not make it off the House floor before cutoff.

To maximize efficiency of our roads and infrastructure, it is important to manage how they are used. Pricing our roads can help control the flow of traffic so that travel is faster and more reliable. I-405 Express Toll Lanes generated more revenue than expected and improved travel times for everyone. A recent survey also found that 86% of people like having an ETL option on I-405.

Update 3/13: Bill did not pass off of Senate floor.

House Bill 2123 would dismantle voter-approved projects under Sound Transit 3, cutting billions of dollars from light rail, commuter rail, and bus rapid transit projects throughout Pierce, Snohomish, and King counties.

Update 3/13: Bill did not make it off the House floor before cutoff.