Late Tuesday night HB 1284 was passed by the PA State Senate and concurred by the PA House of Representatives. It then went to the Governor’s desk and was signed Friday, December 15th into law.
The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and Families for Safe Streets of Greater Philadelphia are overjoyed at this outcome. This decision will save lives and protect highway workers. This outcome significantly advances safety, builds on the success of the Roosevelt Blvd program and will allow the City and Commonwealth to save more lives on state roads.
The amended bill that passed makes the current Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement program and Roosevelt Boulevard program permanent, adds driver protections to those programs and the School Bus Arm Encroachment. It also adds 5 more permanent roads to the Roosevelt Boulevard program and allows the City of Philadelphia to create School Zone Speed Camera pilots in 5 locations for at least 5 years. This amendment also triggers a study to be completed by the Local Government Commission two years after the bill’s passage that would look into expanding the program to other municipalities’ local roads in the state.
We are grateful to the bill’s sponsor, Representative Ed Neilson and his whole staff for their dedication to this cause, as well to Senator Wayne Langerholc for his leadership. We had a powerful coalition of local leaders worked with us throughout this campaign including, the entire City of Philadelphia OTIS staff, the Philadelphia Parking Authority, AAA MidAtlantic, the PA Safe Roads PAC, Senator Tim Kearney and his staff, Senator Marty Flynn, all of the Philadelphia State Senators for standing with us at the end, and to Representative Mary Jo Daley and her colleagues in the House for being such fierce advocates.
But this victory would be nothing without our members, volunteers, community members, and everyone else who took action to make your voices heard. We thank you.
In the final 7 weeks of this year, we are asking 700 folks to join or renew their membership. To the nearly 350 folks who have already done so this month and the thousands of others who have added or redoubled their support already this year, thank you—your commitment and generosity made this possible. If you are not a member, please consider joining today. If you are a member whose date slipped by or is coming up, please click open this link to renew as you’re read this.
The commitment of 700 members this year is crucial to continuing this work and building our critical mass as action-takers. Not only that, but we are still raffling off a bike and offering some special rates on perks (more info on that here!).