As Bud reported, the House and Senate versions of this bill have been merged, and we now have a single three feet to pass bill, SB 566, without the careless driving or tailgating sections. It’s out of committee, and awaiting a vote on the Senate floor. Please contact your senator now, and ask them to vote for SB 566, “three feet to pass bicycles.” You can find your Senator’s contact info at the General Assembly’s Who’s My Legislator page.
“Three feet to pass” laws are gaining steam nationwide. At least 14 states have enacted them so far, with more on the way.
SB 566 is the Senate version of Virginia’s own three feet legislation, but it also outlaws tailgating, and creates a new Class 3 misdemeanor of Careless Driving — to counter the difficulty of charging motorists with Reckless Driving when they kill or injure cyclists. This bill, along with the House version HB 1048, are the most directly relevant to cyclists in Virginia this year.
SB 566 will be heard tomorrow morning in committee, and it needs your support now. If your legislator is on the Senate Transportation Committee, please email or call them tonight, or first thing in the morning, and tell them to support SB 566.
Please pass this along via email and social media, especially to your bike club mailing lists.
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FYI, I don’t know who runs that Richmond Sunlight site, but they do not have the correct info for the Transportation Committee. In Northern Virginia in particular, Peterson is no longer on the committee and Marsden is.
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?101+com+S11
Brian,
Thanks for the correction. We do appreciate it.
Did you ever contact Richmond Sunlight about it? Undoubtedly they have errors here and there, but in general the data is timely and it’s far more user-friendly than the legislature’s own site.
You know, I probably should have let them know first, eh? I’ll send them a note shortly. Any word on what happened in the committee?
Brian: update posted above.