California Bicycle Coalition, the organization working on your behalf for sensible bike-friendly mobility policy, has announced its 2015 legislative agenda. At the top: tweaks to the vehicular code to clarify the law as relates to bike operation. Plus education in lieu of ticket fines for two-wheeled scofflaws. Consider supporting Calbike today!
Tag Archives: California Bicycle Coalition
Three Feet for Safety Act Goes into Effect Today!
At long last, those who ride a bicycle in California enjoy some protection as vulnerable road users under the state’s vehicular code. The new law, Three Feet for Safety Act (section 21760), for the first time specifies what ‘safe passing’ means to riders and drivers. When passing riders in the same direction, drivers must allow a three-foot margin. And if there’s not three feet available, the driver must slow and pass when there is sufficient room to present no danger to the rider. Continue reading
Support California Bicycle Coalition
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We just re-upped our membership in Cal Bike Coalition. Consider supporting this statewide pro-bike organization for the great work they do.
California DOT Adopts NAACTO Design Guide
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California Bicycle Coalition reports that Caltrans (our state DOT) has adopted NACTO’s Urban Bikeway Design Guide. For years AASHTO’s outmoded guide prioritized motoring instead of multimodal mobility. Now, in part through the coalition’s ‘better bikeways’ campaign, NACTO’s more progressive template guides us. Please support Calbike today!
Three-Feet Passing Bill on the Governor’s Desk
Will the third time be the charm? On the Governor’s desk sits AB 1371, the ‘Three Feet for Safety Act,’ which would create a new standard for unsafe passing that specifically addresses the needs of those who ride a bicycle. Part of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s legislative agenda, two earlier versions of this bill went down by Governor’s veto. How ironic that the California Highway Patrol worked against it. The prospect of yet a third veto has riders again on edge. Will this Governor sign the state’s first safe passing law? Continue reading
State of the Union: Low Regard for Cyclist Safety
Courtesy the National Conference of State Legislatures. Click through for more information.
The National Conference of State Legislatures recently posted a handy little map and table that surveys safe passing laws across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. And boy do those laws vary! The patchwork highlights how state law can and does affect the rider’s reasonable expectation of safety. But the laws also suggest a longer-term challenge: in many states, no law at all exists to guide drivers on safe passing. And the prevailing 3-foot standard is a low bar with a slim margin of safety in practice. This challenges California to do better. While we could emulate the best of them, the numbers suggest it more likely we’ll simply fall in with the average. Continue reading
Safe Passing Law Redux
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California Bicycle Coalition rides herd on the battle to make safe passing bill SB 1464 (Give-Me-3) the law, but need your support to continue. Become a CBC member and donate to the Give-Me-3 campaign. Next stop for SB 1464 – the State Senate!
Support Senate Bill 1464 ‘Give Me Three’
Do you like to ride your bike but fear passing traffic? Have you been brushed or even rear-ended by a careless motorist? Do you despair at the paucity of bike lanes? If yes, then the California Bicycle Coalition (CBC) wants you to sign on to their Senate Bill 1464 campaign so that cyclists can bike safe in the knowledge that finally a law exists to criminalize injury at the hands of a careless or negligent motorist. Believe it or not, these safeguards don’t exist today! Continue reading
CalBike & LACBC Bike Summit a Success!
CBC Executive Director Dave Snyder presides over a morning panel discussion: CBC's Advocacy and Capacity.
Last weekend the California Bicycle Coalition (CBC) and the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) organized a ‘bike summit’ for active transportation advocates here in Downtown Los Angeles. And we can call it a success: about 150 attendees filled the Kyoto Grand Hotel ballroom to hear from state-level advocates and nonprofit leaders about the year we’ve left behind, and the year in organizing that lies ahead. Continue reading
Your Governor Vetoed SB 910
This afternoon, your Governor, Edmund G. Brown, vetoed the most significant statewide cyclists safety legislation ever sent to any governor’s desk. The bill, SB 910, has been hailed by advocates across the state and championed in champion fashion by the California Bicycle Coalition (read the CBC letter). So unwavering and hard-fought was @CalBike‘s campaign that Brown’s veto can only come as a crushing blow to all cyclists who call for protection under the law. Not least, many hundreds of personal stories of intimidation and harm flowed to Sacramento from our two-wheeled comrades to no evident effect.
Give-Me-Three (SB 910) Waits on the Governor
Senate Bill 910 is sitting on the Governor’s desk. That’s the bill that would allow cyclists at least three feet of buffer when being overtaken by a motorist. You’d be forgiven if you thought that existing laws already afforded cyclists safe-passing protection. But you’d be mistaken: in practice, the buffer is anywhere from several feet to a few inches. Motorists evidenty have differing ideas about what constitutes “safe” passage. To right that wrong, the California Bicycle Coalition has been on the job, working hard to move this worthy bill through the Assembly and Senate and its related committees. Now it only awaits the good Governor’s signature.