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2022 Legislative Bills BWANH Supports

First off, many thanks to BWANH & NHRTC members Dave Topham, Abby Evankow, Ellen Kolb and Boyd Smith, who have all spent many hours investigating and reviewing the current lengthy list of legislation (bills) going before our NH state legislature for this 2022 session. Ellen and Boyd should be able to attend in person many of the House Committee meetings and hearings on a variety of the bills we care about. (This is what advocates do. Thank you advocates!)

Now for the current list of bills that BWANH, NHRTC and other organizations will be supporting for this session, as they impact bicyclists, pedestrians, and/or rail trails:

HB 1579 – Recreational use statute revision. Relates to eliminating liability for railroad owners if their right-of-way is shared with trails. This revision to the current NH “Recreational Use Statutes” is critical to allowing many “Rail-with-Trail” projects in NH to move forward, especially the Granite State Rail Trail between Manchester and Concord. This bill was initiated by NHRTC members, and BWANH fully supports it. The first hearing is Jan 20 at 1:00 in the LOB.

HB 1109 – Seeks to change the approval process for OHRVs being allowed on Class 5 & 6 roads. Raises the bar for allowing OHRVs on roads. Must get through local legislative bodies with majority vote and requires abutter notifications.

HB 1188 – Establishes an OHRV study Committee. One request is to get more non-motorized advocates officially assigned to this committee, such as BWANH, NHRTC, GSW, and abutters, etc.

SB-306 – Enhanced penalties for violators of hands-free law.

HB-1562 – This one is a simple housekeeping item, related to SB-306 above, to add text including verbiage mentioning “hands-free law 265-79c.”

What does it mean for BWANH, and or NHRTC for that matter, to be supporting these bills? BWANH and NHRTC representatives will be actively monitoring, writing letters of support, attending hearings in person as needed, giving written and verbal testimony at the hearings, and sometimes even special meetings with legislators and other stakeholders related to any proposed bill.