Mayor Bowser has submitted a bill, the Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Technical Amendment Act of 2016*, for council consideration which amends the Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Amendment Act of 2016. Most of the changes are trivial or semantic, such as replacing the word "accident" with "crash" or "rate" with "frequency". Others seem to be clearing up an oversight such as changing a requirement about reporting on pedestrian crashes to also include bicyclists. But there are some other, more substantive changes as well.
Perhaps most relevant to cyclists is a change in the frequency and type of moving infraction data that the DC government must report. The new act will reduce the reporting from once a month to once a quarter, and it will remove the requirements that the District report the date and time of the infraction, the Police Service Area where it happened, the age of the driver and the jurisdiction in which the driver was licensed. The justification for this seems to be that the District is incapable of providing this other data.
The loss of PSA data is not a big deal, but the loss of the information about ticketed drivers is unfortunate.
It also changes a requirement related to the issuing of permits for the occupation of public space. The original law required that all permits be published with either a description of the safe accommodations provided for pedestrians and cyclists as required by law, OR an explanation for why accommodations can't be made. The new bill would only require that permits be published with a description of any safe accommodations provided for pedestrians and cyclists as required by law; but if none are provided than nothing needs to be reported.
In addition to this, the new law would make it illegal to park, stop, place or stand an all-terrain vehicle or dirt bike on DC public property (except when transferring it between vehicles for lawful transport elsewhere); increase the fines and penalties for moving infractions in a work zone - even when workers are not present; and add to the list of infractions for which a driver may be required to participate in an ignition interlock program, any offense for which a driver's license has been revoked for driving while impaired or intoxicated.
A public hearing is scheduled for this bill on December 12th.
*Yes, I'm aware that the Mayor inverted Pedestrian and Bicycle in the name of this bill
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