FW: Stop for Pedestrians in Crosswalks Makes Progress

[Bruce&Linda Dwyer]

-----Original Message-----
From: Lloyd Vye [mailto:bdvye at comcast.net] 
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2008 10:23 PM
To: VBFBoard at yahoogroups.com; VBF Topica; Sara Lewis; patricia reddington
Subject: vbf: Stop for Pedestrians in Crosswalks Makes Progress

Senator Ticer's SB644 passed the Senate today by a 22-16 vote and now 
goes over to the House, where it will be heard by the House 
Transportation committee (unless the House Bill 1270 , which is 
identical, passes the House, in which event both bills will be 
"conformed" into one, whereupon I'm not exactly certain what the 
procedure is).

To keep us in suspense, Del. Ebbin's HB 1270 was "Passed by for the day" 
today, rather than having its 2nd reading, and I haven't heard why. It 
could be something very innocent, like the patron was ill or otherwise 
not present, or it could be more problematic.

The bad news is, that the 22 - 16 vote in the Senate was almost exactly 
along party lines, with every Democrat voting for the bill, and almost 
every Republican voting against it, with one of each party not present. 
Fortunately, two  freshman Republican Senators (Stuart and Vogel) must 
not have gotten the word and voted for the bill, for which we are 
grateful. I, personally, was disappointed that my Senator (Stosch)  
voted against the bill, and will let him know in no uncertain terms. I 
was also disappointed to see that John Watkins who is on the 
Transportation Committee, and voted FOR the bill in the committee, 
turned around and voted AGAINST the bill on the floor.  If we have 
anyone from his district on the list, they may want to call his office  
(698-7510) and ask WHY?. Our Williamsburg folks may want to call Senator 
Norment's office (698-7503) and express their disappointment with his No 
vote, also.

Why this is bad news, is that the House has a Republican majority, and 
if anti-pedestrian sentiment  is part of the GOP creed, we're heading 
for a disappointment.  We have gotten this bill further than its ever 
been before and we have a real shot at getting it through, but we've got 
to get it through the House.

Everyone should contact their Delegate's office (again, if you already 
have done so in the last day or so, and particularly if your delegate is 
an R) and urge them to support HB1270 on the floor.

This whole issue should be a "no-brainer",  yet some of us have been 
working on it for 6 or 7 years.

Let's get it all the way home this year, so we can go on to other things!

Bud Vye

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