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Today is the Active Transportation Summit at the state capitol—basically all the non-car transportation advocates have teamed up and are descending on our state representatives all in one day. This used to be called the Oregon Bike Summit, but this year it's open to transit and pedestrian groups, too.

I'm not down there, but you can follow most of the action on Twitter hashtag #ATsummit.

So what's at the top of the low-car agenda?

Harsher Penalties for Bad Drivers Who Kill People
We see it again and again and again: People with suspended or revoked drivers' licenses not facing serious penalties until they eventually crash into someone and kill them. Senate Bill 415 wouldn't help stiffen penalties for drivers before serious tragedy strikes, but it would slap repeat offenders who wind up causing "serious physical injury or death" of a cyclist or pedestrian with 100-200 hours of community service "related to driver improvement" and mandate they attend a road safety course or pay a $12,500 fine.

UPDATE: I got the changes to this bill wrong. Bicycle Transportation Advocate Gerik Kransky better explains what it will do: "Our bill amends the vulnerable road user (VRU) law by adding the words 'appears to have' in front of the word 'contributed' to make it easier for police officers to invoke VRU.

It is a very minor technical fix that allows police officers to say what they saw, and not pass judgment on what actually happened. They can then feel comfortable invoking VRU and leave the judgment to lawyers and judges."

Lowering Neighborhood Speed Limits
Earlier this month, the House passed House Bill 3150, which will let cities lower the speed limit on their neighborhood streets. Right now, if Portland wants to lower the speed limit on any street in town, it has to go through a cumbersome process of petitioning the state to change. If this bill becomes law, Portland could cut the top speed on low-traffic streets (like, say, bike routes SE Ankeny or NE Going).

Safer Crosswalks
Do you have "Pedestrian Aggressiveness Syndrome"? That's great! Sometimes you've got to assert your rights. Senate Bill 424 clarifies exactly what it means to be trying to cross the street: "Pedestrian is crossing roadway when any part or extension of pedestrian's body moves onto roadway with intent to proceed." So if you stick your foot out in an intersection and a car refuses to stop for you—that'll be definitely against the law.


Notably not on the agenda? The Idaho Stop Law, which would have allowed cyclists to slow instead of fully stopping for stop signs at empty intersections and stirred up lots of controversy last session.