Transportation bill amendments target 12-foot minimum lane width – BikePortland

A slew of additional amendments to House Bill 2025 have been posted in the last 24 hours as lawmakers attempt to pass a major transportation spending package before the end of the session.

There are now a total of six amendments to the original bill. Some are very minor, while others are consequential. Yesterday I shared how lawmakers want to address an e-bike rebate program and a funding increase for the Oregon Community Paths Program — both of which were left out of the original bill.

Two new amendments seeks to address a major concern of may transportation safety advocates: a provision in the original bill that seeks to establish a minimum lane width of 12-feet on all major freight routes in Oregon.

This provision, likely inserted into the bill by a lawmaker at the behest of trucking industry advocates, would have codified into law a minimum lane width of 12 feet on “identified freight routes.” The trust deficit around this issue and ironclad, top-down rule about something as important as lane widths, raised many eyebrows. In a newsletter to her constituents in Albany and Corvallis, State Senator Sara Gelser Blouin said the impacts of the legislation would be “alarming”. Sources told BikePortland that even top planners and engineers at the Oregon Department of Transportation were opposed to the idea.

The two amendments — the “dash 13” introduced by Joint Committee on Transportation Reinvestment Co-chairs, Sen. Chris Gorsek and Rep. Susan McLain; and the “dash 15” introduced by Rep (and Joint Committee on Transportation Reinvestment member) Mark Gamba — seek a compromise: it would still call for 12-foot lane widths, but not if “safety or access considerations require otherwise.” The rule would also only apply to lanes that are officially designated freight routes on state highways and are located outside of an urban growth boundary. (Sen. Blouin said the amendment would include language that a 12-foot lane rule would only apply to new construction, but that didn’t make it into the bill.)

The changes proposed in these amendments are clearly aimed at preventing the lane width provision from having a negative impact on bicycling, walking, and other road users whose safety is directly connected to crossing distances.

Gamba’s 95-page amendment (known as “dash 15” because it’s HB 2025-15) seeks many other changes to the original bill and it’s based on the same “SMART [Safe, Modern, Affordable & Accountable, Reliable Transportation] Framework” that he and a group of progressive Democrats released earlier this month.

The Joint Committee on Transportation Reinvestment held an informational meeting on HB 2025 Tuesday evening and is scheduled for a work session and possible vote Thursday (6/19). Learn more about the bill via the Oregon Legislative Information System (OLIS) or in the BP archives.