SB553 Update from Senator Taylor's Office

I received this letter this morning and thought I'd share it with you all as an update of the bicycle bill, SB553:

Dear Christopher,

My name is Tiffany Limbach, and I am Senator Taylor’s legislative assistant. Senator Taylor greatly appreciates hearing from informed constituents like you and your readers.

After a bill passes in both houses of government, the author can either concur or dissent with any amendments made. Dissenting sends the bill to a conference committee. Senator Broden, the author of SB 553, originally filed a concurrence with the House amendments to the bill. However, today, April 20, he withdrew the concurrence and filed a dissent. Therefore, nothing can be done until Senate and House conferees are assigned to the committee. The conferees will negotiate to come up with a final bill acceptable for both the House and Senate. Then, they will vote on it one last time. Once conferees and advisers are appointed, it will be reflected on the action list online.

Thanks so much for you email. Senator Taylor was happy to hear about your blog and growing readership, and he asked that I pass along his congratulations. Please do not hesitate to contact Senator Taylor’s office with future questions or comments. You can also follow the Indiana General Assembly by visiting his website at http://www.in.gov/legislative/senate_democrats/homepages/s33/index.htm.

Thank you very much,
Tiffany Limbach

An Update on SB553

From the Indiana Bicycle Coalition's website:

Indiana Senate Bill 553 has recently been approved by the Senate. It is now being assigned a committee in the House of Representatives. If you would like to follow the bill on the state's legislative site it can be viewed here. To help progress the bill, email your thoughts and ideas to your state legislators. To find your state legislator go here, and enter your zip code. This will provide you with their name and email address.

More info, along with a great letter from the mayor of South Bend can be found here on the Indiana Bicycle Coalition's website.

This is a good bill, with good changes that will hopefully take effect. I've a bit of an issue with the mandatory helmet stipulation for cyclists under the age of 18, but I've already included that in my letter to my representative, and who knows, maybe you agree with it and want it to stay in the bill. Either way, please contact your state representative and urge them to vote affirmative to this bill, including the 3-foot passing rule.

The Real 3-Feet Please

As a quick supplement to the possible 3 feet passing law here in Indiana that we posted about last week, I wanted to direct some attention toward a national movement to have the 3-foot law put into effect in state law everywhere.

Joe Mizereck, founder of 3 Feet Please, found us from the post we made about getting the 3-foot law on the books here in Indiana, and left an encouraging comment. Here are some words of wisdom from an email exchange we had that I felt especially pertinent:

"If you have any opportunity to help folks focus, it is critical that people not get bogged down with the enforcement debate. Help people stay focused on the value of the law as an educational tool. That is how to get this adopted and it is where the most good can be accomplished."

The main debate I hear about this law is that police won't enforce it through pull-overs and tickets, which is probably true. But, to even have this law on the books means that 1) bikes do have a legal leg to stand on in the case of getting swiped or grazed, and 2) it'll (hopefully) be taught in driver's ed courses, and if we're really lucky, could find its way on to driver's license exams. As Joe said, think of the educational value of this bill, more than the enforcement value.

Joe has been extremely helpful, gracious, and seems to have a good portion of knowledge in the ins-and-outs of getting the 3-foot passing law on the books. I encourage anyone interested to shoot him an email about how to help Indiana (or your respective state) get these laws on the books.

3 Feet Please - Indiana House Bill SB553

Found this clip from Nancy Tibbett on CIBA's Bike Advocacy page, and wanted to make everyone aware of it.

The Bicycle Safety Bill – SB553 has been assigned to the Roads and Transportation Committee in the House of Representatives. The 3 foot passing law was removed in the Senate and although the bill is good, it would greatly benefit the bicycling community if the House amends the bill, adding the provision back in.

Please contact your representative and those on this committee to share your thoughts as to why the 3-foot passing law is important to bicyclists. Here is an example that was sent to Representatives Dvorak and Neese (sponsors of the bill in the House):

We would like you to consider amending SB 553 to include a 3-foot passing law. The motor vehicle code has specific language for overtaking a vehicle. A vehicle would not be in the same lane as the overtaken vehicle, it wouldn’t be possible in most cases, nor would it be safe. Since a bicycle takes up much less room on the roadway, a vehicle will often stay in the same lane, very close to the bicyclist, as it passes the bicycle. The 3 foot passing law is not a new concept and simply requests a specific amount of room be given in order for the action of passing the bicyclist to occur safely. Many other states have begun adopting this change as more and more bicycles are on our roadways.

The following states currently have adopted the 3' rule: Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia, Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, New Hampshire, and Tennessee.

Two states have a 2' rule: North Carolina and Virginia.
Colorado's Senate has just approved a 3' rule.
In Maryland, committees in both the House and Senate have approved a 3' provision.

Here is the link to a list of representatives on the committee.

Once the bill was assigned a committee in the Senate, it progressed quickly – please proceed with a sense of urgency.

Here's a link to the bill as it stands currently.

Thanks for your support in creating a bicycle-friendly Indiana.

For more information, or if you would like to get more involved than a simple letter to your representative, you can contact:

Nancy Tibbett
Executive Director
Indiana Bicycle Coalition, Inc.
PO Box 20243 / 6358 N. College Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46220
317.466.9701
800.BIKE.110
http://www.bicycleindiana.org/