{"id":11580,"date":"2015-01-22T06:23:58","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T14:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wabikes.org\/?p=11580"},"modified":"2015-01-21T23:24:58","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T07:24:58","slug":"sb-5438-updating-state-law-accommodate-faulty-traffic-signal-detection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wabikes.org\/index.php\/2015\/01\/22\/sb-5438-updating-state-law-accommodate-faulty-traffic-signal-detection\/","title":{"rendered":"SB 5438 – Updating State Law to Accommodate for Faulty Traffic Signal Detection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Legislation introduced yesterday<\/a> in the Washington State Senate provides a safe and reasonable procedure to proceed through broken traffic signals that fail to detect bicycles.<\/h3>\n
\"Someday,<\/a>

Someday, all traffic signals will detect bicycle riders. Until then SB 5438 provides a safe protocol to address getting stuck at red lights. Photo: Seattle Bike Blog<\/p><\/div>\n

It doesn\u2019t get much more frustrating than to ride a bike and get stuck at a red light that fails to detect you and doesn\u2019t turn green. Still, this a too-common occurrence for bicycle riders on streets across Washington state.
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

Luckily, in 2009 Washington Bikes, with the help of the Washington Road Riders<\/a>, passed legislation<\/a> that requires all jurisdictions to make traffic signals detect bicycles and motorcycles (subject to the availability of funds), if they are undergoing maintenance (also, with priority to complaints made), and if they are installed after July 26, 2009.<\/p>\n

Progress is being made in many cities to update traffic signals to conform them to state law, but unfortunately many older traffic signals statewide still fail to reliably detect bicycle riders.<\/p>\n

To help address this problem SB 5141,<\/a> sponsored by Senator Curtis King (R-Yakima), was passed in 2014 allowing for motorcycles to\u00a0stop and proceed or make left-hand turns through traffic control signals that do not detect motorcycles under certain very limited\u00a0conditions with a specific protocol that is clear and understood by law enforcement.<\/p>\n

For a variety of reasons, the legislation passed last year did not include bicycles.<\/strong> The omission was noticed by Washington Bikes, as well as many bicycle riders around the state (and reportedly by our bike riding Governor at the bill signing ceremony, too) and with input from the Washington Bikes Legislative and Statewide Issues Committee, adding bicycles to the law became a 2015 legislative priority of Washington Bikes.<\/a><\/p>\n

SB 5438 is sponsored by Senate Transportation Committee Chair Curtis King who led the successful passage of last year’s legislation. SB 5438 builds on the 2009 and 2014 legislation by continuing to provide a legal protocol for how bicycle riders can address getting stuck at a traffic signal that fails to detect them.<\/p>\n

Adding bicycles to the 2014 law that addressed motorcycles, provides road users the following benefits:<\/b><\/p>\n