2020 Regular Session

ByRepresentatives Eslick, Blake, Barkis, Ybarra, and Shea

Read first time 01/15/20.Referred to Committee on Transportation.

AN ACT Relating to allowable uses for the multiuse roadway safety account; and amending RCW 46.09.540.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. RCW 46.09.540 and 2013 2nd sp.s. c 23 s 10 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The multiuse roadway safety account is created in the motor vehicle fund. All receipts from vehicle license fees under RCW 46.17.350(1)(r) must be deposited into the account. Moneys in the account may be spent only after appropriation. Expenditures from the account may be used only for grants administered by the department of transportation to: (a) Counties to perform safety engineering analysis of mixed vehicle use on any road within a county; (b) local governments to provide funding to erect signs providing notice to the motoring public that (i) wheeled all-terrain vehicles are present or (ii) wheeled all-terrain vehicles may be crossing; (c) the state patrol or local law enforcement for purposes of defraying the costs of enforcement of chapter 23, Laws of 2013 2nd sp. sess.; ((and)) (d) law enforcement to investigate accidents involving wheeled all-terrain vehicles; (e) counties to perform maintenance on any road within a county that is authorized to be used by wheeled all-terrain vehicles on a travel or tourism route; and (f) purchase, print, develop, or use educational brochures or mapping technology that aids in the safety and direction of users of wheeled all-terrain vehicle routes.

(2) The department of transportation must prioritize grant awards in the following priority order:

(a) For the purpose of marking highway crossings with signs warning motorists that wheeled all-terrain vehicles may be crossing when an ORV recreation facility parking lot is on the other side of a public roadway from the actual ORV recreation facility; and

(b) For the purpose of marking intersections with signs where a wheeled all-terrain vehicle may cross a public road to advise motorists of the upcoming intersection. Such signs must conform to the manual on uniform traffic control devices.