Editor's note: The above video was published in January before the bill was introduced in Olympia.
A bill allowing the City of Seattle to use cameras to identify drivers who "block the box" at intersections has new life in the Washington Legislature.
The bill, previously thought dead, was revived this week.
Commonly known as the "block the box" bill, the Senate Transportation Committee heard arguments for the bill Wednesday morning in Olympia.
"As someone with a visual impairment, I can't drive and so I rely on walking and transit," Anna Zivarts, director of Rooted in Rights, told state Senators on Wednesday. "When I'm crossing the street with my toddler in a stroller when the crosswalk is blocked, I am often forced to push the stroller out into moving traffic to get around the cars."
Zivarts kicked off public comment at Wednesday's meeting to raise mobility concerns on behalf of the disability community.
"When drivers block intersections and curve ramps, they are not only making crossing difficult for pedestrians, they are also putting our lives at risk,” she explained.
The pilot program proposed in the bill gives drivers a grace period until January 2020. After this point, violators would receive a ticket after their first warning.
The bill is designed to end the program by January 1, 2022, and requires that the city of Seattle delivers a report of its success to the Legislature.
Seattle has said there is a rash of problems at key intersections, attributed to drivers who attempt to fill a lane and instead block an intersection. There are also problems with cars who fill bus-only lanes.
The issue is most prevalent, according to the city, at intersections such as Westlake and Denny or Fourth and Battery. The latter had nearly 200 instances of blocking in a nearly eight-hour period.
Councilmember Mike O’Brien held a committee hearing on the issue, which also appears to have the support of Seattle police. The department has issued $136 tickets for “box blockers,” and nearly 100 of them in 2018. The numbers were higher in 2016 and 2017.
Seattle Police Department Captain Sean O'Donnell testified on Wednesday, urging lawmakers to consider the risk that emphasis patrols put on officer safety. O'Donnell said officers are at risk when they enter traffic as well as creating a physical interruption when parking their vehicle in a lane to educate drivers and distribute tickets.
O’Brien believes the city could install cameras for $10,000 each, which could capture activity triggered by intersection blocking, not unlike speeders.
According to the legislation, revenue raised from tickets would cover the cost of cameras. The remaining balance would be split between the city and the state.
Tim Eyman, a regular visitor in Olympia and transit advocate, told Senators he thought ticket revenue was a slippery slope.
"The entire financial incentives for ticketing cameras are completely upside down, they make more money the more law breaking there is. So there's an incentive for them to catch more people doing bad stuff so that they can maximize the amount of money that they make," Eyman said.
The legislative session is scheduled to end Sunday.