Yes, that is right - Austin is at it again. The usual business whenever the legislature is in session - hold on to your wallets and watch out for your rights. HB 2443 wants to make it illegal for you to pull over and stop on the side of the road to get a picture of the bluebonnets.
At least that was what the original HB 2443 filed by Walter Price, District 87 (which includes Amarillo) was doing. Luckily, the substituted version that came out of the house transportation committee makes a little bit more sense. It also adds other regulations having to do with temporary tents at rest stops if they are serving refreshments. We got far afield very quickly.
Simply put, the original would have made it a class C misdemeanor to park on the side of the road, except in an emergency (flat tire, car on fire, etc). So if you wanted to stop and take pictures of the landscape, watch the clouds, or the stars at night, or whatever that we have been able to do for ever (since cars were brought to Texas), that would now be illegal.
So the committee reworded it, put it in a different section of the Texas Code. Now, it is referring to parking for more than 24 hours, or setting up a tent or such on the side of the highway - a very different thing. It seems to me that in this case cooler wiser heads prevailed. It has been sent off to calendars, so it should be up for a vote in the near future. I think this is an unnecessary law and so I wouldn't mind at all if it fails to pass. On the other hand, I don't mind if it does pass - I just don't see the burning need for this law. Is this really a problem? Really?
Don't we have more important things to look at?
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