Highway Safety and Policy Subcommittee

Wednesday, January 28, 2026·1h 28m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Highway Safety and Policy Subcommittee advanced seven bills — including a bicycle omnibus bill and a live streaming while driving ban — mostly by wide margins, while continuing two southwest Virginia ATV trail access bills to the 2027 session.

Key Actions

·HB 661 – Bicycle Safety Yield, Walk Signal, and Two-AbreastPassed

+ 8 more actions

Controversies

HB 320 – Internal contradiction between self-incrimination argument and evidence admissibility provision

Delegate Cole argued that live streaming is self-incriminating evidence that remains on platforms for 30 days. Delegate Ballard countered that subsection G of the bill states evidence discovered or obtained as a result of a stop in violation of the subsection shall not be admissible in any proceeding, challenging Cole directly: 'The last line of your bill says that you can't use the evidence... the bill itself says you can't use the evidence in any proceeding.' Counsel clarified that the inadmissibility applies only to evidence from an improper stop, not to evidence from the live stream itself.

+ 4 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“It is just an absolute tragedy that I can't even name all the friends I've lost to cycling accidents. It is one of the situations where the car wins and the cyclist loses.”
Delegate Rodney T. Willett — Delegate Willett, patron of HB 661, explained his personal motivation for sponsoring the bicycle safety omnibus bill, which includes a Safety Yield provision allowing cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs.

+ 4 more quotes

Votes

Motion to report HB 661Passed

Motion to continue HB 302 to the 2027 sessionPassed

Motion to continue HB 587 to the 2027 sessionPassed

Motion to adopt substitute for HB 320Passed

Motion to adopt friendly amendment to HB 320 (add 'or the commission of a crime' after 'to report an emergency' in subsection E)Passed

Motion to report HB 320 substitute as amendedPassed

Motion to adopt amendment to HB 365Passed

Motion to report HB 365 as amendedPassed

Motion to report HB 646Passed

Motion to adopt amendment to HB 783Passed

Motion to report HB 783 as amendedPassed

Motion to adopt substitute for HB 812Passed

Motion to report HB 812 with substitutePassed

Motion to report HB 819Passed

Motion to adjournPassed

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TranscriptPreview

All right. If the committee could come to order, I believe that we had been called to order earlier and then gone at ease. So I appreciate everyone's patience and I appreciate Chair Delaney for coming down and getting things started and kind of making everyone aware of what was going on. So what we're going to do is we do have a quorum, I believe. And so what we're going to do is we're going to start by opening and taking roll. And I believe that we need six for a quorum. So if the clerk could close the attendance. We do have six, so we do have quorum. And what we're going to do, just so everybody knows, is I have promised that Delegate Willett that he will go first because he has another committee that he has to be at. And then we have two administrative items that we'll take care of with Delegate Moorefield and Delegate Ballard's bill. And then we'll get into the rest of the folks, probably just in numerical order. So, Delegate Willett, please, if you would present House Bill 661 to us and tell us what your bill does. Make sure this…

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