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Committee advances bill requiring annual DOT reports on traffic volumes and accident data
Summary
The committee passed a bill requiring the highway department to provide annual statistical reports — including traffic volumes, routes with highest use and some accident statistics — intended to increase transparency on how new highway revenue is spent; the Department of Transportation said compiling the report will be an additional annual burden but the data exist.
A Senate Transportation, Technology & Legislative Affairs committee advanced a bill that requires the state Department of Transportation to produce an annual report linking spending to traffic volumes and certain accident statistics.
Representative Lundstrom is identified in the record as the sponsor; a committee member said constituents want clearer accounting for how multimillion-dollar highway revenue increases are spent. Randy Orte, assistant chief for administration at the Department of Transportation, told the committee the agency already retains the data but that preparing the annual per-capita and traffic-volume breakdowns the bill requires would be "somewhat cumbersome." He said the bill is not identical to a recent independent-efficiency study requirement and that it focuses on forward-looking, per-route traffic and accident statistics rather than only accounting for how new revenue was spent.
Senators asked whether the new reporting requirement could effectively drive policy decisions — for example, prioritizing projects where traffic volumes are high — and whether it overlaps with prior bills by Representative Dismang. DOT staff said the bill includes data elements not covered by prior measures and that it would become an additional, annual reporting obligation.
A motion to pass the bill was made by Senator Pitch, seconded by Senator Hill; the committee voted by voice and recorded ayes, advancing the bill out of committee.
The transcript does not include a roll-call tally. The bill’s reporting schedule and further implementation details will be clarified in subsequent legislative steps.
