Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Proposed Law Would Let Bicyclists Run Some Red Lights

A bill that would allow bicyclists to run certain red lights could get the green light from state lawmakers. Substitute Senate Bill 5438 seeks to address some of the broken or aging traffic signals that are unable to detect bicyclists, and as a result, often don't change from red to green when they're supposed to.

The bill went before the House Committee on Transportation Monday afternoon for a public hearing. It's scheduled for a vote in that committee tomorrow.

While most bicyclists at the hearing supported the change, a few said it might lead to safety issues of bicyclists thinking they can run any red light and pedestrians thinking they can walk against the light because bicyclists did.

The bill would require bicyclists to wait through one full cycle of the traffic signal before they're legally able to proceed through a red light, with caution. King 5 news has reaction from bicyclists on the bill.

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About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.