Bicycle Friendly America Winter 2018 - 29

efforts of John Komoroske of the FBA legislative committee,
a meeting with Senator Dennis Baxley of District 12 yielded a
promise to give the measure consideration. We are happy to
report, Senate Bill 116 was filed on August 9, 2017.

What I have learned from FBA summits and the League's
National Bike Summit is invaluable - to walk the capital
halls and put the knowledge to work has proven necessary
and purposeful.

YES! WE DID IT!
This was the message to our members and the cover story
to our autumn Messenger quarterly newsletter. To date, SB
116 has a companion House bill, HB 117, and our third priority,
to make texting while driving a primary offense, also had bills
filed (HB 33 and SB 90). The 2018 Florida legislative session
officially starts on January 9. We often hear the asks have to be
in baby steps and that legislation is a process that takes time.
Here in Florida we have been baby-stepping for years and now
it looks like the baby is finally growing up.
Our Association, along with numerous organizations and
agencies, are part of the FL DNT TXT N DRV grassroots
coalition working with Representative Emily Slosberg, CoSponsor to HB 33. Representative Slosberg traveled the state
over the summer asking City and County Councils to adopt a
resolution to support the texting as primary measure and coalition members followed suit. It only took one ask from me and
two meetings of the City of Oldsmar City Council to adopt
the resolution.
Just last week (December 4-8, 2017), the Florida legislation
held its last interim committee week. Although none of the
bills in play were officially before a committee, our Speaker
WINTER 2018

of the House and Governor publicly supported the 'texting as
primary' bills. In a word, HUGE.
Speaking of HUGE, our "move over for people" initiative
took a big step last week when House bill sponsor Representative Charlie Stone asked the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee to host a bicycle and pedestrian
workshop to discuss HB 117. Members of the Florida Department of Transportation and FBA were asked to serve on the
panel as we made our case for Complete Streets and enforceable laws.
What I know about advocacy has been a baptism by fire,
primarily because I fired the Association's lobbyist after my
first year as Executive Director; not because I knew better, but
because I felt we could do better. What I have learned from
FBA summits and the League's National Bike Summit is invaluable - to walk the capital halls and put the knowledge to
work has proven necessary and purposeful. This year, we have
two bills in play that support our legislative platform and we
are going to run with them. In fact, we are hoping that the "texting as primary" and "move over for people" initiatives, when
they become law, act as a one-two punch to wake up distracted
drivers to pay attention when behind the wheel. This would be,
in a word, HUGE.
Becky Alfonso is Executive Director of the Florida Bicycle
Association.

BICYCLE FRIENDLY AMERICA 29

http://floridabicycle.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Bicycle Friendly America Winter 2018