General Assembly Begins Wednesday, January 8

With Session to begin tomorrow, the VBF is currently working for the passage of three bills focused on cycling. Two bills, one requiring three foot passing and another for dooring, have been introduced in the Senate by Senators Reeves and Petersen, and Delegate Comstock has introduced a “following too closely” bill in the House.

Summaries are below.

We need your help to get this legislation passed.  Please take a moment to call, email or write your Delegate and Senator and ask them to support these bills.

To determine who your legislators are, click  here.

With the hundreds of bills before the legislature, a quick call or a sentence or two with the bill numbers is all you need to do.  Remind them that this is about safety on our roads, transportation choices, and saving lives.

SB 97 — Three Foot Passing

Map of States Requiring 3 Feet to Pass*
(Map Courtesy 3feetplease.com)

This bill would help educate motor vehicle drivers to pass the drivers of any non-motorized vehicle (including a bicycle) with a wider margin of error, and thereby reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries to these legal and legitimate road users. In addition, this bill could improve justice for all lawful and prudent drivers of non-motorized vehicles (including bicycles) who are injured by negligent following motorists. Finally, this bill would make it illegal to harass or endanger the driver of any legal vehicle by “buzzing” them.

Note that § 46.2-907 (Overtaking and passing vehicles) additionally applies to riders of bicycle and mopeds. This section says that the bike or moped rider “may overtake and pass another vehicle on either the left or right side, staying in the same lane as the overtaken vehicle, or changing to a different lane, or riding off the roadway as necessary to pass with safety.” Also, a bike or moped rider “may overtake and pass another vehicle only under conditions that permit the movement to be made with safety” and shall otherwise “comply with all rules applicable to the driver of a motor vehicle when overtaking and passing.”

§ 46.2-839. Passing bicycle, electric personal assistive mobility device, electric power-assisted bicycle, moped, animal, or animal-drawn vehicle. The sole proposed change to this statute would be to increase the minimum passing distance for bicycles and mopeds from two feet to three feet.

The current code says “pass by (at least) two feet”, but it doesn’t seem to be enough.

Recent bicyclist fatalities:  an average of 11 cyclists were fatally struck by motor vehicles in the past several years in Virginia, most of whom were hit from behind. Several were high profile cases — Daniel Hersh in Virginia Beach; Kevin Flock in Dinwiddie county; Dr. John Bell and Dr. Joe Miranda from Lynchburg; Lanie Kruszewski and Gary Burton of Richmond — all of whom were hit from behind.

Claims of a “suicide swerve”: drivers involved in such crashes may state that the cyclist swerved into them as they were passing the cyclist. A three-foot swerve or wobble is less credible than a two-foot swerve or wobble.

Extended mirrors: vehicles pulling boats, horse trailers, and trailers with lawn care equipment tend to have extended mirrors on the passenger side that extend farther than the driver realizes.

Educational value: neither drivers, cyclists or law enforcement officers carry measuring devices to know exactly how closely one vehicle is passing another, but 3 feet seems to be a recognizable educational tool to give the drivers the message to give the cyclists a wider berth (whereas any collision provides the needed proof that the passing distance was inadequate). If the changes to following too closely and passing too closely are adopted, DMV’s Virginia Drivers Manual and state Drivers Test can incorporate this information.

Enforcement: though some argue that a 3 foot law cannot be enforced, Austin, Texas passed a 3 foot ordinance in 2009.  Though slow to initially issue tickets, the City of Austin police department began an enforcement effort using undercover police officers on bikes. This new emphasis on enforcement has led to 104 citations for violation of the city’s 3 foot passing ordinance.

Nationwide practice — 22 states, plus the District of Columbia have already adopted 3 feet in their codes: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire,  Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin,  California (effective 9/14), Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, and Pennsylvania (who has a requires four feet.) Similar bills  are currently pending in  several other states. Thus, a 3-foot minimum distance for passing bicyclists will likely be the law in a majority of the U.S. states within a few years.

Bicycle-Friendly State criterion: the League of American Bicyclists has adopted the existence of a 3-foot minimum passing law as one criterion for ranking the bicycle friendliness of the 50 states. Virginia is currently ranked 16th  in part for lacking a 3-foot passing law. Passage of this bill would help improve Virginia’s ranking in the future which will help attract more bicycling tourists to visit Virginia.

Objections: Reasons Given for Requiring Less Passing Distance

Two feet is adequate for passing motor vehicles at low speeds: Low-speed maneuvering such as in parking lots often has vehicles as close as two feet, and the driver and passenger in the motor vehicle are protected by the vehicle, so passing by two feet seems to work well for motor vehicles.

Motorists naturally pass other motorists widely at higher speeds:  in part because lane-splitting by motor vehicles is illegal, motor vehicle drivers tend to naturally give other motor vehicles a wide berth, particularly at higher speeds.

Non-motorized drivers are more vulnerable and may naturally wobble to stay balanced: on the other hand, the bicyclist (and similar road user) lacks occupant protection, resulting in small miscalculations or errors having catastrophic consequences for the bicyclist. Moreover, two-wheeled or single-track vehicles such as bicycles must necessarily wobble some to stay balanced, whereas four-wheeled vehicles don’t wobble The catastrophic results of a collision dictate that a greater passing distance be required when a motor vehicle passes a bicyclist.

Wind blast: the wind blast from a large truck passing with two feet at high speed is far more problematic for a cyclist than for a motor vehicle. Furthermore, wind blasts from large passing vehicles can cause bicycles and mopeds to wobble even more than usual.

Differences in typical speed differentials: bicycles and mopeds generally pass other vehicles at relatively low speeds, whereas motor vehicles may pass non-motorized vehicles at speed differentials exceeding 45 MPH.

HB 82 and HB 811 — Following Too Closely

These bills amend three sections of the Code of Virginia, §§ 46.2-816, 46.2-838, and 46.2-839

§ 46.2-816. Following too closely. currently, this Code section applies only to motor vehicles following other motor vehicles, trailers, or semi-trailers. The proposed modification would extend the same standard of legal protection to the drivers of all vehicles that are permitted on the roadway, including bicycles, mopeds, and animal-drawn vehicles. The prohibition on following too closely would still only apply to drivers of motor vehicles, so the common (and typically safe) practice of a bicyclist drafting another bicyclist would not be affected.

§ 46.2-838. Passing when overtaking a (motor) vehicle. The proposed change would retain the current 2-foot passing distance for passing motor vehicles, but clarify that this code section applies to passing motor vehicles only. Otherwise, § 46.2-838.and § 46.2-839 would be redundant and/or confusing for bicycles, mopeds, and animal-drawn vehicles.

SB 225 — Dooring Legislation

As the number of cyclists on roads increase and bike lanes become more prevalent in our urban areas, “dooring” has become a major threat to cyclists.  It’s a threat because there is no way to prevent accidents and serious injuries.

Right now, the driver is not at fault.  Drivers are permitted to open the car door at their discretion.  There is no law to find them negligent of causing the injury.

40 States and DC have Dooring Laws on the books. (See http://www.cyclelicio.us/2013/an-american-survey-of-dooring-laws/ )

USBR1 Heading into Downtown Richmond on Second Street

The City of Richmond has added bikelanes to the Second Street connector of US Bike Route 1  where the route enters downtown Richmond.  Though only .3 miles long, this  scenic section of the  route connects to  US 1/301 and crosses the James River, passing by the historic, Tredegar Iron Works, Belle Isle and the Virginia War Memorial.

USBR 1 in Front of the Virginia War Memorial

USBR 1  is the major, east coast,  on-road route running from Maine to Florida.

Northern VA Changes

The Virginia Department of Transportation is in the process of realigning sections of the route in Northern Virginia. VDOT will accept input and comments on the potential route alternatives until December 16.

The virtual meeting, containing maps and online comment forms, can be found at: http://bit.ly/1gsP6wN Please submit your comments.

Virginia was one of the first states with a US Bike Route designated by AASHTO and has a combined 838 miles of marked USBRs.

Virginia Bicycling Federation meets at REI in Richmond – photo by Tom Bowden

On Sunday 11/24 the Virginia Bicycling Federation held our annual meeting, at REI in Richmond. We do this in November, to elect our board and officers, and start planning for the legislative session, which starts the second week of January. We usually have a speaker or two as well — this time Stephen Read PE, manager of VDOT’s Highway Safety Improvement Program, and Richmond 2015’s Tim Miller.

Present on Sunday were VBF board members Champe Burnley, Bud Vye, Tom Bowden, Sheryl Finucane, Matt O’Toole, Joe Morgan, Michael Gilbert, Greg Rollins and Mark Blacknell; also Heather Barrar, a Chesterfield County planner; cycling history author Thomas Houff (On Richmond’s Wheel); VBF members Jim Lee and Debbie Anderson; and of course, Stephen Read PE and Tim Miller.

Stephen Read came to acquaint us with VDOT’s Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), and funding opportunities for bike-ped safety. While general highway safety numbers have been staying about the same, bike-ped crashes, severe injuries and fatalities have been increasing. HSIP funding is ruled by benefit-cost (through the “Crash Modification Clearinghouse”), and bike-ped projects offer more bang for the buck. So opportunities for bike-ped safety funding may be increasing, especially with total HSIP money having increased. Mr. Read’s presentation was thorough in explaining crash types, and their preferred “fixes” — great knowledge to have when appealing to decision makers. There were too many details to go into here — hopefully we’ll do that in another article — but here are Mr. Read’s slides:

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Contact your legislators now!

It’s not often that we get national bike-ped legislation. This would require the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) and state DOTs to account for, and work to reduce, bicyclist and pedestrian deaths. Without metrics, how do we know how we’re performing?

From the League of American Bicyclists:

“…a coalition of bipartisan lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced identical bills (HR 3494 and S 1708) — the Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Act — to help reduce the number of bicycle and pedestrian fatalities on American roadways. Review our resources on safety and learn more about how you can help support this important piece of legislation…

The League has compiled a media packet for advocates to spread the word and gather support for this vitally important piece of legislation:

• Take Action: Tell your congressional lawmakers to support this bill.
• More on HR 3494 and S 1708
• Fact Sheet
• Chart breaking down the numbers
• Safety Resources and League ‘Rules of the Road’
• Sample blog/editorial to use in your community“

Go to the Bikeleague page now. Use the template, modified with your own local examples. We need everyone to write!