Action Alert: Ask your Senator today to Vote Yes on SB 513 – Complete Streets

Time is running out,

Please Ask Your State Senator TODAY

to Support the Complete Streets Bill!

SB 513 passed out of committee yesterday, and we must confirm 21 YES votes in the Senate before it can be brought for a vote on the Senate floor, which could happen as early as Tuesday. Please call your senator NOW and ask if they intend to vote YES or NO on Complete Streets (SB 513), then let us know how he or she responded.

The deadline has passed for bills to be scheduled for a vote in the House, so the House version of Complete Streets is effectively dead.  This means our only chance to pass the bill is in the Senate, and that’s why we need YOU to ask your senator to vote FOR SB 513!

Yesterday, The Complete Streets bill passed another milestone, when the Senate Transportation Committee voted SB 513 out of committee. The vote was 5-4.Voting for the bill were SenatorsRodney Ellis, Wendy Davis, Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, Kirk Watson and Jeff Wentworth.  Voting againstwere Senators Chris Harris, Robert Nichols, Florence Shapiro and Tommy Williams.

Now we have to act quickly for the bill to have a chance of making it through before the end of the legislative session!

The bill must be voted on in the Senate NEXT WEEK, so it can have time to go to the House for a vote.

To find out who your State Senator is, click here!

Find your senator’s contact information here.

For information on the Complete Streets bill such as bill language, supporting organizations and bill authors, go to the BikeTexas website.

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Before writing or calling, please review our general guidelines for writing your representatives. Some specific points we suggest you make for a letter or phone call regarding SB 513 are:

• Properly address your representative (see our general guidelines) Identify yourself as a constituent (e.g. “I’m a voter in District 4”, or “I live in your district.”)
• Briefly state your background and any relevant affiliations (e.g., I’m a city official/engineer/PTA member/parent and a member of BikeTexas)
• State that SB 513 (the Complete Streets Bill) is important to you and why in a short sentence or two. Make it personal to your experience. See our FAQ’s for ideas.
• Ask that your representative vote Yes on SB 513. Making a specific request is key. You might ask it as a question, e.g. “Will you support SB 513?”
• Be polite. You might thank them for their public service.

For more information, contact BikeTexas at 512-476-7433 or mail@biketexas.org.

Please forward this information to your friends and neighbors!