Testimony: HB 278 – Urban State Highways – Speed Limits – Exceptions

WABA supports supports HB 278, which would authorize the State Highway Administration to decrease the maximum speed limit by 5 miles per hour on urban state highways without an engineering and traffic investigation.

You can view this document in PDF form here.

HB 278: Urban State Highways - Speed Limits - Exceptions

House Environment and Transportation Committee
Washington Area Bicyclist Association – FAVORABLE

February 8, 2024

Chair Korman and Committee Members,

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) supports HB 278, which would authorize the State Highway Administration to decrease the maximum speed limit by 5 miles per hour on urban state highways without an engineering and traffic investigation.

Speed kills. According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), "Studies clearly show that higher speeds result in greater impact at the time of a crash, which leads to more severe injuries and fatalities." For instance, a 2011 technical report published by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, “Impact Speed and a Pedestrian’s Risk of Severe Injury or Death,” found that the average risk of severe injury to a pedestrian increased with vehicle speed from 10% at 16 MPH, 25% at 23 MPH, 50% at 31 MPH, and higher at higher speeds. In response,

HB 278 would directly address vehicle speed, a factor that is known to make our streets more dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists and all road users.

Reduction in posted speed limits is part of the Context Driven toolkit that is applied by the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA). The SHA positions limit reduction as a safety countermeasure in urban and suburban contexts, “as part of the proactive treatments aimed at increasing safety for vulnerable road users.” The SHA’s Context Driven Toolkit states, “in denser context areas, a reduction in the posted speed limit may have a significant impact on safety for more vulnerable users, including pedestrians and bicyclists. Higher operating speeds reduce a driver’s ability to react when they encounter these users in the road, and result in higher severity outcomes when collisions occur.”

However the requirement to conduct an engineering and traffic investigation, on a road-by-road basis, is onerous. It is expensive, time-consuming, and a deterrent to taking steps we know we must take. Let us recognize that MDOT’s work on Complete Streets, Context Driven, and Vision Zero strategies fully justifies allowing the SHA discretion in speed-limit reduction, as would be afforded by HB 278.

The General Assembly has an opportunity to boost Maryland road safety by enacting HB 278. Please take it.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify on this legislation.

Seth Grimes, WABA Maryland Organizer

seth.grimes@waba.org

More about Maryland Legislation

WABA develops and advocates for state legislation to make bicycling in Maryland safer and more accessible and for state funding to expand Maryland’s bicycle network, working directly with legislators and Maryland Dept. of Transportation (MDOT) leadership and as part of the Bike Maryland coalition. We also work on broader road-safety, transit, and environmental legislation and funding, typically as part of larger statewide coalitions. The annual Maryland legislative session runs from January to April, but our work developing legislation starts the preceding summer.

We’re thrilled that several bills we worked on or supported were enacted in 2024, directing an MDOT Vision Zero Coordinator and public review process; the Better Bus Service Act, allowing bus-lane enforcement cameras (with bikes allowed); authorizing stop-sign cameras near schools in Prince George's County; and the Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Memorial Act, addressing penalties for hitting a cyclist in a bike lane.

Our 2024 advocacy included unsuccessful efforts that we will likely pursue in future years. (It often takes years to pass a bill. ) These include a Great Maryland Trails Act, an E-bike Rebate and Voucher Program bill, and a bill addressing maintenance responsibility for sidewalks and bike paths along state roads. Another topic on our list for 2025 is contributory negligence, a prejudicial statute that says that if a crash victim is even only 1% at fault, then they are liable and may not recover (full) costs and damages from the party largely at fault.

More about Laws & Policy

WABA works with grassroots advocates at the local, county and state level to support laws and policies that make it easier and safer to walk, bike, and take transit. And we work to changes ones that make biking less safe, make it harder to build bike infrastructure, or that deprioritize the safety and convenience of people walking, biking, or taking transit.

In practice that means advocating for robust and transformative Vision Zero programs, enforceable Complete Streets policies, and funding for new infrastructure that supports biking, walking and transit.

Other regional legislative priorities include:

Reforming Contributory Negligence (passed in DC, in the works in Maryland and Virginia).
Getting rid of the Level of Service engineering standards in transportation decision-making.
Funding E-bike purchase rebates.

More about Advocacy

WABA fights for a region where biking, walking and transit are the best ways to get around.

We educate policymakers and organize grassroots advocates for to speak up for safer places to bike and walk; and for laws and policies that protect people who are walking and biking, reduce dangerous driving, and facilitate changes to the built environment.