A 3 foot passing sign from the state of Georgia, which is somehow ahead of California on this issue.
Earlier this week the California State Senate approved SB 1371, a bill that would require drivers to maintain at least three feet of space between their vehicles and a bicyclist they are passing in the same direction on the road. Twenty-one other states in the country have already passed similar laws. The California State Assembly approved the 3 foot passing law in late August.
The bill’s passage in both the Senate and Assembly is good news for advocates of safe bicycling across the state because it defines an easily recognizable distance between bikes and cars for both drivers and cyclists…
As a rider of both street bikes and motorcycles, I find that either drivers see you or they don’t. It’s unusual to become a target of drivers otherwise, that making such a law is not going to significantly increase rider safety and I’ve been hit several times on both as well. All of them “didn’t see or hear me”, all but one was in daylight and that one time, I had twin light sets on the bike and still became a hood ornament.
I would love to see some statistical results from the states that have this in place already.
Almost always, in my humble opinion it’s distracted or impaired drivers that cause almost all accidents, this isn’t going to change that. We all know how well that hands free only cell phone law has worked out, but it makes a lot of money for those that write the tickets!
*Good Grief Carl – how can you operate those “Donor Cycles”? Hey, this is no longer 1956 and motorists do not stop when they see a kid on a bike. The motorcyclists of today scare the living daylights out of everyone…..going by 70 MPH HOV drivers on the right side at about 90 MPH. The stupid bike people in their matching “soccer outfits”….10 at a time, clog up traffic forever. According to DMV Code, bicyclists have the same rights, responsibilities and enforcement as auto have. So, why do they never stop for Red Lights, or when they do, it becomes a 50’s 2nd gear stop….and they are through the intersection. When there are 7 or 8 or more….two or three always go through and the rest stop and clop up traffic…..and if you driving in the slow lane…you have to more over so that big trucks in the number one lane are inches away at times. No, recently our neighbor who is 76 and rides with a helmut……got hit and feel, but has remarkably recoverd in about 4 months, from having a rod put in leg, which was broken….remarkably, he was off his cane into about a month. Meanwhile, some lady 58…..was recently killed on Newport Coast…she was going downhill too fast and rammed into a van. She died of traumatic head injury even though she was wearing a high tech bike helmut. Carlo…you be careful dude!
Hey! Another piece with kudos for SQS … except you have to click thru to the Rag to see that she wrote this new bill. Also click thru to see Huff being really dumb.
I’m not sure what mean about Sharon Quirk-Silva writing this bill. It was introduced by Steven Bradford (D-Gardena). I’m glad Sharon supported it, but it’s based on a nearly identical bills from the past two sessions, well before Sharon was elected to the Assembly. Did she mark it up in the Transportation Committee to help get it passed?
Oh – sorry, read your piece too quickly. I saw “kudos to Sharon” on your end, and an SQS tag on our end. NEVER MIND