Current Situation

Of the two lane-sharing bills currently active in the legislative process, SB5401 written by Emily Randall is the one that currently has the best hope of moving to the next step in the legislative process, which is to get a hearing scheduled in the committee before the deadline of February 25th.

The head of the committee, Sen. Marko Liias, has told us that he will schedule it for a hearing if enough members of the transportation committee agree to move ahead on it.

(Update: the above information was relayed by one of Liias' staffers. Lobbyists in close contact with Sen. Liias have told me that at this moment, Liias has not committed to scheduling a hearing. Sen. Randall is currently working on rewriting the bill in order for it to have a chance at a hearing before the deadline)

There are 17 senators in the committee, 14 of which have currently not voiced their opinion on SB5401. Each of them are part of their own legislative districts.

If even a single constituent (person who lives in their legislative district) sends a comment in favor of the bill, it can be enough to make them support a hearing.

What do we need to do?

We need to identify ANYONE - friends, family, riding buddies, etc - who lives in one of these legislative districts, and have them send a short message supporting the bill due to rider safety.

I have an address, how do I know what district it's in?https://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/ - if it matches to one of the above districts, you're in business

How do I get people to "comment" on this bill exactly?Go to this link. Then, click on "comment on this bill". You will then be invited to verify the district, fill out the address, e-mail, name, and position. A good template will be in the comments below, but you must tweak/customize it slightly, duplicates risk getting thrown out.

I know some people in one of these areas, but they don't rideNot a problem! Senators listen to all their constituents' opinions very closely, rider or not. It's still possible to hammer home the motorcycle safety aspect regardless. You can call them and say "hey, can I ask you for a favor? Can you help me by supporting this motorcycle safety bill? Your representative is on the transportation committee". You only need their email, address, name, and of course, their permission.

What happens if we're successful?

If we can convince the members of the committee to support Emily Randall's bill enough to get it scheduled for a hearing before Feb. 25th, we'll all get notified of the hearing date. With other motorcycle organization's help, A much larger call to action will be raised state-wide to mark our position prior to the hearing. Last year, we had around 600 marked messages of support, and almost 50 people in line to testify in support at the hearing.

After a bill is heard, it is voted on in the next transportation committee meeting. Our canvassing efforts are important to get committee senators to vote in agreement with the bill, that will then be passed out of committee and make it into the next step. Making it out of committee is 50%, if not 75%, of the battle

What happens if we can't mobilize enough messages of support?

Emily Randall, the bill's sponsor, is hard at work trying to convince her fellow senators to support the bill in committee. But if the committee members don't hear enough from their constituents, they'll deduce that the bill is just frivolous or not important enough. They'll choose to prioritize other bills that are waiting for a hearing.

If the hearing date isn't scheduled before Feb. 25th, the bill dies in committee. There won't be enough time to have a subsequent committee meeting after the hearing to actually vote on the bill. This is what happened with last year's splitting bill. It was a shortened session, and the hearing was held on February 7th, the last day that the transportation committee actually met.

Let's work together and find constituents in these districts who can help us get this bill a hearing, and help save motorcyclist's lives in WA state!