BAC testimony on Bicycle Safety Enhancement Act

This is the testimony they gave on Friday, which includes the disturbing news that the Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Fund was removed from the 2009 budget

The Bicycle Advisory Council was established by law, and its members are appointed by the D.C. Council to advise the Mayor and the District government on bicycling issues within the context of ensuring safe and convenient bicycling in our city.

      The Bicycle Advisory Council supports Bill 17-981 in its entirety.  Collisions between bikes and heavy-duty vehicles can be deadly, as was such a collision was with Alice Swanson earlier this year.  Your proposal to include blind spot mirrors, blind spot warning signs, and underrun guards on rear tires should help to make these incidents less prevalent.  We also agree that all operators of heavy duty vehicles should receive bicycle and pedestrian safety training and that this will help to further reduce the number of accidents involving large vehicles.  While these rules would only be in place for District-owned vehicles under this provision, it helps makes the roads safer for cyclists and pedestrians, and provides a strong model of safety requirements for heavy duty vehicles throughout the city.  It is appropriate that the District government should lead by example in establishing these rules.

      DC law requires that cyclists on city roads travel as far to the right as practicable, with several exceptions – such as left hand turns and avoiding dangerous obstacles – but it does not currently define a safe separation distance for vehicles to observe when passing bicycles.  Your bill would require drivers to pass cyclists with a minimum of three feet separation.  The Bicycle Advisory Council agrees that three feet is the minimum amount of space that a driver should give a cyclist when passing in order to exercise due care.

      Lastly, the Bicycle Advisory Council would like to applaud you for establishing a fine for the improper use of a restricted lane.  Parking, standing, and stopping of vehicles in restricted bicycle lanes and driving in restricted bus/bike lanes often create unnecessary hazards for cyclists.  While these practices violated the law, there was no corresponding fine associated with the violation, and therefore no mechanism for the Metropolitan Police Department to enforce these violations.   With this provision and the corresponding vigilance of officers enforcing this new fine, navigating the District of Columbia will be safer for both cyclists and drivers.

      While we are disappointed that the newly developed bicycle and pedestrian safety fund had its $1.5 million allocation cut out of District of Columbia 2009 budget, we understand the difficulty the Council faces during tight economic periods.  If the revenue projections improve in the Chief Financial Officer’s February update, we hope that the Council will reinstitute the funding for the safety fund.

Comments

[David Ramos]

The budget cut is indeed disturbing.

With all this talk of safe passing distances, I'm wondering about a provision in the DC traffic code.

Section 1201.2 requires cyclists to travel "as closely as practicable" to the right of the lane, and then enumerates a broad list of exceptions.

One of those exceptions is a lane too narrow for safe passing, a category that includes lanes "11 feet wide or less." Now, I'm not a great judge of length, but I think that nearly every lane in the District is 11 feet wide or less.

No?

[Contrarian]

Generally lanes in DC are 10 feet. There are a fair number of roads that were laid out wider, but not wide enough for two lanes. I'm thinking of roads like Arizona Ave., Park Road, or downtown one-way roads without bike lanes.

Most of those roads are clearly wide enough for a bike and car to ride side by side. Where it gets dicey is when the road is in the 12 to 13 foot range -- some vehicles can share with a bike, some can't. That's where the 3-foot distance becomes important.