Bike Lane Protection Bill Signed into Law!

After a lengthy process that went up against the last possible moment on Friday, the Bike Lane Protection Bill was signed into law by Governor Baker!

Thanks to the support of our members, the efforts of groups like Livable Streets Alliance and the Boston Cyclists Union, and the hard work of key legislators like Senator William Brownsberger and Representative Dave Rogers we are able to celebrate this victory! MassBike filed this piece of legislation and we could not be more thrilled about this success.

We encourage our members to thank their lawmakers who have supported this bill through the process.

But wait... there's more!

Just as we celebrate this new bike friendly law MassBike is busy working on the 2017/2018 legislative agenda. The process begins again! We are currently assisting with the assembly of the largest package of bicycle and pedestrian related bills since the 2008 Bicycle Safety Bill, to be filed next week. We will be sending out more information soon, including bill numbers, after it has been filed.

But in the mean time... please join us this Wednesday for our State of the Coalition event at our Boston office (it's free to attend!) and hear about some of the key parts of this new piece of legislation.

Find out more about the State of the Coalition and RSVP here.

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Robert Rosofsky commented 2017-01-16 09:59:42 -0500

I agree with John O’Toole. But it’s complicated. First, some votes are “voice” votes and the legislators cannot be identified. Some votes are “roll call” votes, whereby the votes of legislators are recorded by name and can thereby be identified.

From some searching, I believe that this is bill # H3072 (“H” stands for house; see https://malegislature.gov/Bills/189/H3072/BillHistory). From downloading the “journal” for 1/3/2017 at http://www.mass.gov/legis/journal/journals16.htm, I found that the bill “was adopted, in concurrence.” So I think it was a voice-vote in the House.

The bill was sponsored in the Senate by William N. Brownsberger, and was S2534.

So much for democracy. It would be great if we could get more detail on our legislature’s actions. It would be helpful for MassBike to provide the detail, to its membership, when possible, of how our legislators voted on a bill of interest. Then we can thank them or criticize them, as appropriate.
John OToole commented 2017-01-16 09:11:34 -0500

That is great news! I would like to thank my legislator if he voted in favor of the bill. How do I find out how my legislator voted? I don’t see anything on the Legislature’s website.