Federal Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Act

From Politico. The bill itself is behind a paywall and I can't find another version of it online.

Noted bike-lover Rep. Earl Blumenauer will introduce a bill this morning to mandate that DOT set separate safety standards for motorized and non-motorized transportation. But he’s not going it alone — two big GOP names are on board as well. Senior T&I member Howard Coble and Homeland Security Chair Mike McCaul are cosponsors of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Act. Over 15 percent of the auto accident deaths in 2012 involved a pedestrian or biker, but the bill’s authors note that less than 1 percent of safety funding goes to the non-drivers. “Everyone is a pedestrian at some point in their trip,” Blumenauer says, “and the number of individuals commuting by bike has increased by more than 60% over the last decade.” In his praise of the bill, Coble uses a classic GOP talking point: states’ rights. “It will help protect all users of our transportation system, while giving states flexibility to enact measures that make sense for them,” he says in a statement today. The League of American Bicyclists is on board with the measure, which will also have a Senate companion version. Here’s a draft copy of the bill sent in by several sources:

Comments

[Michael]

This could be good...maybe. Obviously the number of bicycle fatalities per year is to high, but draconian measures that discourage bicycling could come from this.

[Walsh44]

The bill number is HR3494. As of early afternoon 11/15, the text was not yet available from GPO or Thomas. When it does become available, you can find it here:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d113:10:./temp/~bdUhGf::|/bss/|