Bad News
HB 588/SB 547 - Update to the Three Foot Passing Law: Our attempt to have the three foot passing law apply on all Maryland roads failed this session. We were trying to remove an exception that made it so if the roadway was too narrow to give three feet the law did not apply. This exception almost killed advocate support for the original law because it makes the law confusing and difficult to enforce, as well as prioritizes driver convenience over bicyclist safety. We will convene a work group with elected officials, agency officials, and special interest groups to determine how we should address passing on narrow roads.
SB 605 - Aggressive Drunk Driving: This law clarifies that "super drunks" or repeat offenders who kill or injure a person while driving under the influence can be sued for punitive damages. This law has passed the Senate but received and unfavorable report from the House Judiciary Committee.
HB 539 - This law puts a mandate on the State Highway Administration to evaluate the speed limits on urban state highways and determine if they should be altered. As it stands right now, SHA does not have to return to reclassify roads and appropriate speeds as use along that road changes. While HB 539 failed in the House Environment and Transportation Committee is starts an important discussion on safe speed and a duty to adjust our roads to changing conditions. We applaud Delegate Carr for his effort.
Good News
HB 450/ SB 371 - This law places a timeline for the State Highway Administration to develop the guidelines for and approve Bicycle Pedestrian Priority Areas. The original Bicycle Pedestrian Priority Area legislation passed many years ago, but as of yet only White Flint has been designated despite many applications.[This law passed and was signed by the Governor]
SB 86 - Creates a "Yellow Alert" system for hit-and-runs. Similar legislation in Denver, and now all of Colorado, has been incredibly successful at solving hit-and-runs.This bill is now up for a vote in the House of Delegates, so please tell your delegate that you support an alert system for hit-and-runs. See our discussion of the bill here. [Passed, but awaiting signature.]
"As it stands right now, SHA does not have to return to reclassify roads and appropriate speeds as use along that road changes."
I'm pretty sure they have an internal policy regarding review of road speed limits and other traffic implements. But the policy is based around the number of incidents (collisions, 'accidents', etc) that occur along it. Then a ranking system is applied to mix the reviews in via traffic studies with new planned development/redevelopment of roads/intersections/bridges, etc.
The fast-track process for this is for legislators to call the District Engineers and raise ire themselves. While technically not in the SHA policy, they will often dispatch staff to unofficially observe whatever problem exists.
Rather than seeking some sort of systemic review process (which sort of exists de facto anyway), I would rather see a law requiring each study contain a cycling and pedestrian impact paragraph that includes estimated utilization before and after, impact of planned changes, etc, etc. (They sort of do this now, but in a very limited sense).
(FWIW, the most common way for them to adjust speed limits is when they seek to place speed cameras.)
Posted by: T | April 20, 2015 at 08:48 AM
15-0484 in Baltimore City was recently up. They repealed the previous law that required all gas stations have an air pump providing free use. I didn't realize that existed, but damn, that would have made cycling much easier to know every gas station had free air. I would just carry the adapter on me and wallah.
Posted by: T | April 21, 2015 at 09:26 AM