Dear Bicycle Board Members,
I'm thinking of changing my advocacy for a 3-foot passing law to advocacy for a law that would require motorists to change lanes when passing bicycles. I would like your thoughts and guidance.
Attached is a report, "The 3 ft. Law: Lessons Learned from a National Analysis of State Policies and Expert Interviews" by Rutgers University Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.
My reading of the report leads me to the following: The greatest benefit of the 3-foot law is educational by increasing motorist awareness of bicyclists but the educational benefit may be short-lived. The 3-foot law is hardly enforced if enforced at all in 20 states that have adopted it and it might be practically unenforceable. 3-feet is insufficient when motor vehicles are passing while traveling more than 25 mph faster than bicyclists. Motorists must change lanes when passing slower moving motor vehicles so changing lanes when passing bicyclists shouldn't be any more difficult or inconvenient. In WV, there are hardly any travel lanes wide enough that a motorist can pass without encroaching into the adjacent lane. While motorists and police officers may not be able to accurately judge 3-feet, they can all accurately judge which lane they're in or whether they're straddling two lanes. Since crossing the double yellow center line is common practice, the law should be modified to recognize such, particularly to permit crossing the center line when it is safe to do so. The WV Connecting Communities Legislative Agenda that we recommended includes a recommendation for a 4-foot rule. I think WVCC is trying to get legislation introduced in the session that is happening now. So, this would probably not be a good time to say, "Hey, wait. We changed our mind." However, quite commonly, legislation gets recycled through multiple sessions before it finally passes.
The legislative process of getting a 3-foot law passed can have undesirable consequences such as requiring cyclists to ride on shoulders and banning bicycles from roadways that don't have shoulders.
