What's in the Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Act of 2015

Holy mackerel, Cheh's Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Act has a lot in it. In short:

• Lots of data reporting
• complete streets policy
• pedestrian and bicycle priority zones
• stop as yield  Idaho Stop (sorry Crickey)
• dooring language change
• bicycle insurance provisions
• universal street safety education mandate
• targeted for-hire vehicle operator training
• study of a remediation and deferred disposition program
• escalating fines for repeat offenders
• tougher distracted driving law
• a new penalty for aggressive driving
• required side-underrun guards and blind spot mirrors or cameras on trucks
• study of pedestrian alert devices on District-owned large vehicles
• access to video for crash victims
• creation of a major crash-review task force

Thanks to Greg Billing to proving me a link to the bill. 

Unpacking it a bit.

1. DDOT will have to regularly publish crash data, sidewalk closure information and information on citizen petitions for for traffic calming measures on its website, MPD will do the same with moving violations. DDOT will also report annually on dangerous locations. Every 5 years DDOT will report with recommendations on how to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety.

2. DDOT is instructed to create Bicycle and Pedestrian Priority Areas (at least one per ward) where right-turns-on-red can be abolished, speed limits lowered and more TCO and camera-enforcement can be utilized.

3. DDOT will adopt a complete streets policy. [They have one now, but is one issued by the DDOT Director, and thus can be removed by them at any time. This one will be law.]

4. The law will be changed to allow cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs, just as pedestrians do. DC would adopt an Idaho Stop law. (I had to reread it to catch it) Cyclists approaching a stop sign or stop light will be required to slow down, and if required for safety, stop before entering the intersection. After slowing or stopping, the cyclist will yield the ROW, after slowing and yielding the cyclist may proceed through the intersection.

5. Dooring will be redefined to explicitly include bicycles.  

6. Bicycle insurance will be governed by the same laws as motor-vehicle insurance, and bicycle insurance providers may require policy holders to register their bikes.

7. All schools will have a curriculum available to them on safe cycling and walking.

8. For-hire vehicle operators will be required to learn about issues related to bicycle and pedestrian safety as part of existing mandatory training. And those using digital dispatch will require additional training.

9. The Mayor is required to study a remediation and deferred disposition program for people committing moving violations. 

10. Repeat offenders will see larger fines - up to 5 times as much for 4th time offenses. This will be true for speeding offenses, crosswalk violations, right-of-way violations, stopping or standing violations (including in a bike lane, sorry UPS). 

11. Drivers will no longer be able to use the phone when the car is not moving. 

12. Drivers who commit 3 or more or a set of violations (like speeding or improper lane changes) can be cited for aggressive driving, which carries a penalty of $200 and 2 points and mandatory driver education.

13. All heavy-duty vehicles registered in the District will be required to have side under run guards, reflective blind spot warning stickers and either blind spot mirrors or cameras. This is currently the law for District-owned vehicles.

14. The Mayor is instructed to report to the council as to whether Circulator buses and District-owned heavy duty vehicles can be equipped with pedestrian alert technology.

15. If a District owned camera captures video of a crash all vehicle operators involved in that crash will be informed that the footage exists, the footage will be preserved and the parties will be assisted in acquiring the footage.

16. A Major Crash Review Task Force will be established to review every crash investigated by the Major Crash Investigation Unit and as a result, recommend changes to reduce the number of major crashes.

17. The Kitchen sink

This would represent a major improvement in the safety of DC streets for vulnerable users and put DC at the forefront of American cities with respect to pedestrian and cyclist safety. It's ambitious, but everything on here represents something for which consensus existed among the Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force (which was co-chaired by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) and AAA Mid-Atlantic).  

Comments

[DE]

This is excellent. Stop as yield, just like reality! (Note: We really need to not abuse this and actually to yield the right-of-way. It shouldn't be too hard for most of us, but...)

[Chris Slatt]

Any idea if Contributory Negligence reform is dead or just being handled separately?

[h_lina_k]

Wish it included the Comparative Negligence fixes that I am pretty sure never happened, but this is still pretty awesome.

[washcycle]

Not dead, being handled separately.

[Fong Fong]

Any ideas here on number of cosponsors? I count Cheh, Grosso, Silverman, Nadeau, Allen as solid yes votes, but where will the other 3 votes come from? Greg, care to speculate?

I like the idea of the contributory negligence part being separate, simply because against votes who are in the trial lawyers pockets can become yes votes without annoying their major campaign donors.

[Greg (not Billing)]

Whoa whoa whoa, what's this about bike insurance? This is kinda making me feel uneasy. Can anyone fill me in here?

[washcycle]

Greg, from the Draft Report of the B&P Safety Working Group:

"The District of Columbia has promulgated traffic laws pertaining to “bicyclists,” under, for example, DC Municipal Regulation Title 18, Section 2101.1, Section 2101.1, and Section 1201.15, among a few. Relevant insurance laws in the District of Columbia specifically include references to “motorist,” “motor vehicles,” “passengers,” and “pedestrians.” However, there is no reference to “bicyclist” or “cyclist” in the District insurance laws.

Bicycle & Pedestrian Working Group recommends that the District’s insurance law should include reference to bicyclists, and ensure that bicyclists receive the same level of consumer protections as motor vehicles."

[ACyclistInThePortCity]

DE

Presumably one benefit of legalizing Idaho (or do we say Colorado, because red lights are still red lights?) is that Waba can now educate how properly Idaho. At least in the District.

[Atlas]

The insurance thing more or less just requires that companies that provide bicycle insurance must follow DC's insurance-offering laws. It doesn't require cyclists to have insurance, if i'm reading it correctly.

[Crickey7]

Yeah, I see it. If that item gets out to, say WTOP, it will be a very bad thing.

[Roo_Beav]

Crikey, WTOP commenters complain about anything a cyclist does regardless of legality.

How often do you see comments about how horrible bikers are because they don't wear helmets (18+), bike on the sidewalk outside of downtown, or take the lane?

[Jeffb]

If you have property insurance (and you should) it generally provides liability coverage for bicycling.

[Matt]

I saw Brandon Todd liked Mary Cheh's posting of the Act on Facebook--is he a potential yes vote?

[Zack Rules]

This is great, very excited, now we just have to get it passed. Idaho stop law is the defacto law already, even MPD bike officers follow it.

[asaf]

Wow, this is actually MORE pro-cyclist than the Idaho stop, right? I've understood the latter to mean stop signs are yields and red lights are stop signs, but this says "stop sign or stop light" so they're treated the same, yes? You must slow down but only have to stop if there's someone approaching. Interested to know how realistic it is for this bill to actually pass.

[ohmypolarbear]

Re: "digital dispatch" (#8 in the list): is that code for Uber? Or is it more about additional distracting electronics in traditional taxi/livery and delivery vehicles?

[washcycle]

It's code for uber or uber-like.

[ohmypolarbear]

Then would this (if it passes, of course) be the first training requirement for Uber drivers in DC?

This article from February just mentions background check and insurance requirements: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/new-regulations-for-uber-and-lyft-open-the-door-for-expansion/2015/02/21/8445149a-b83e-11e4-a200-c008a01a6692_story.html