Tuesday, October 4, 2011

CA 3-foot passing bill vetoed

The Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists supports the passage of California's Senate Bill 910



Mr. Jim Brown
Communications Director
California Bicycle Coalition
1017 L Street, #288, Sacramento, CA 95814

Re: 3 Foot Safe Passing Distance Law

Dear Mr. Brown:

The Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists would like to express our support for enactment of a three foot safe passing distance law (requiring motorists to allow a safe passing distance when coming upon and passing bicyclists from the rear) in California.
With respect to any assertion that this type of law may cause some major difficulties or “mayhem”, we simply have not found that to be the case in Arizona where the law has been in effect for over ten years.
This law has been added to the driver’s manual, and a related question is in the driver test rotation. Our organization provides periodic media messages (primarily radio) and ADOT has some safety messaging and has a created a video on Sharing the Road that includes this concept.
Enforcement is generally confined to collision incidents where it is clear that a violation has occurred.

Sincerely,
Robert A. Beane
President, Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists
(501 c 3 bicycling advocacy and education organization directly representing over 3,000 individual and club member bicyclists in Arizona)
(623)252-0931