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Retain critical funding and address the traffic safety crisis.
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Expedite the build-out of the state trails network.
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These are top priorities for WA Bikes in the legislative session that starts Jan. 13.
This year, we’re asking the legislature to:
Fund the Promises Made in Move Ahead WA
With a lot of new faces in the Legislature, and a lot of pressure to address a deficit in the transportation budget, WA Bikes’ top priority in 2025 is educating our leaders on the importance of retaining the $1.3 billion in active transportation investments made in Move Ahead Washington.
That’s why we are asking you to join us for WA Bikes Lobby Days, Feb. 11-12. Speaking directly to legislators about how important these investments are to you and your community sends a powerful message.
Enact Policies to Address the Traffic Safety Crisis
Our state must do more to protect vulnerable road users. We need to create safe conditions that protect people who bike, walk, and roll, and which encourage more people to take up active transportation. Alongside the reintroduction of a bill to reduce impaired driving, we anticipate legislation to streamline the rollout of slow-streets programs.
Center the Needs of Vulnerable Populations
In recent years, active transportation grant funding and criteria has been sharpened to prioritize communities with higher health disparities, and overburdened communities. Move Ahead also vastly increased dollars going towards the Safe Routes to School program. Seniors are another vulnerable population, and Washington could follow the lead of New York and implement safe routes for seniors programs to improve walkability so that seniors can age in place and retain independence and mobility.
Accelerate build-out of the trails network
We’re asking the state to identify and advance policies that can streamline implementation of Move Ahead projects, similar to how they have addressed other policy priorities such as the housing supply crisis in the 2023 session. That same sense of urgency is needed for safe bikeways.
One path is streamlining regulation. A second is advancing the state’s initial work on building a statewide trails network modeled on the concept of European “cycle highways.” We want legislators to fund the next phase of the cycle highways plan, and to fund gaps that connect and expand the network exponentially.
The 2025 session holds a lot of promise, and we hope you’ll join us in Olympia on Feb. 11 and 12 to meet with us and your legislators speak up for biking and share stories from your communities. Find out more about Lobby Days.
