Dem
51
GOP
49
Clearly there weren't enough issues dividing the country, so Congress has found another one: Democratic pedestrians vs. Republican motorists. Democrats live largely in cities and many of them don't have a car and don't want urban design to be all about optimizing the flow of cars. They prioritize pedestrians, bikes, and public transit. Many Republicans live in rural areas where a car is the only way to get around, unless you live in Intercourse, PA—where quadrupeds (specifically, Amish farm animals) rule the road.
One peculiarity of D.C. is that although it has a mayor and city council, Congress has a big say in how it is run and this has always provided members with wonderful opportunities to grandstand. Now the hot issue in Congress is municipal traffic policy. Republicans in Congress want to prevent the D.C. city council from banning right turns on red lights because they would be an inconvenience to those oh-so-important motorists. They also want to eliminate cameras that enforce laws that forbid barreling through red lights and stop signs. Cameras that catch speeders are also a bête noir for the Republicans. It is all about giving drivers the freedom to do whatever they want, without regard to other users of the streets and roads. The Car is King.
In blue cities all over the country, car lanes have been turned into bike lanes, speed limits have been lowered, right turns on red lights have been banned, and traffic enforcement has been prioritized, all to the dismay of motorists who don't like the thought that other forms of getting around exist and maybe should be encouraged, with driving discouraged. On the right, the "war on cars" is right up there with the "war on Christmas."
The idea of right turns on red lights has a, well, weird history. It began in the 1970s as an environmental measure. The idea was that making drivers in the right-most lane who wanted to turn right wait for the light to turn green, even when it was safe, caused the cars to idle, burn gasoline, and pollute the air. If it was safe to turn, why not let drivers do that after coming to a complete stop, instead of burning gas (and time) waiting? Now, city planners are trying to get people out of their cars and onto their bikes and feet. Turning right on red can result in an accident between a car and a bike or between a car and a pedestrian. Also, banning right on red makes driving a bit less attractive, and environmentalists actively want to make driving less attractive.
There are actually two issues here and they are mixed together. First, should traffic laws prioritize cars or pedestrians and cyclists? Second, should D.C.'s traffic and other laws be set by Congress or the elected city council? It is worth noting that the House committee with jurisdiction over D.C. is the Oversight Committee. Its chairman is Rep. James Comer (R-KY). He represents a badly gerrymandered district that covers all of western Kentucky. However, there are so few people there, it had to be extended north a bit to have the requisite number of residents. Here it is:
All those little bumps on the edge of the district are not artifacts on account of how JPEG encoding works. They were specifically included or excluded in the district to include or exclude very small neighborhoods the (Republican) mapmakers wanted in or out based on historical voting patterns there. Comer's district is 63% rural and 84% white. Whether he is the right person to be telling the residents of the District, which is 41% Black, 11% Latino and 0% rural, how they should manage their traffic and other things is a matter of some dispute. Other Republican members of the Committee include those noted urban planners Jim Jordan (OH), Andy Biggs (AZ), Paul Gosar (AZ), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Lauren Boebert (CO), and Anna Paulina Luna. The ranking member is Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). Other Democrats include Cori Bush (MO), Summer Lee (PA), Rashida Tlaib (MI), Ayanna Pressley (MA) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY). Sounds like a real recipe for collegial discussion and compromise. (V)