Advocacy & Safety - Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, Utah and Wisconsin Q

Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, Utah and Wisconsin;
What year did your 3 foot passing law take affect?

(We are trying to get the same law here and I am doing a little research, thanks for your help.)

http://azbikelaw.org/blog/three-foot-passing-laws-2007-updates/
http://azbikelaw.org/articles/ThreeFoot.html

FL - sec. 316.083(1). Session law 2006-290, effective Oct 1, 2006.

Thanks guys! Any comments about improvement or benefit of the law?

THC,

I pretty much agree with the 'musings' a the end of the 2nd link I provided above.

Although I am not convinced about the positive in terms of sound bite. Cycling advocates here made a mistake in the sound bite they chose to promote the law: "Share the Road, Give Cyclists 3ft" which is now often interpreted by non-cyclists as "Leave 3ft of space on the edge of the road for cyclists to ride in. If they are not in that 3ft space, then it is the cyclists problem for not sharing"

3ft laws locally have made zero noticeable difference in how cyclists are passed in my experience. If I ride far right in a narrow lane nearly every driver will pass me closer than 3ft. (so of course I don't) If I ride on a bike lane stripe, many motorist will pass closer than 3ft.

Close passing is a problem very rarely I encounter and I don't give any credit to the law.

Al

You didn't ask about IL, but our at minimum 3 foot law went into effect Jan 1, 2008. It got some good air time, but I haven't been out this year to see if it has made a difference.

It reads:

The operator of a motor vehicle overtaking a bicycle shall leave a safe distance, but not less than 3 feet, when passing a bicycle and shall maintain that distance until safely past the overtaken bicycle

THC,

I pretty much agree with the 'musings' a the end of the 2nd link I provided above.

Although I am not convinced about the positive in terms of sound bite. Cycling advocates here made a mistake in the sound bite they chose to promote the law: "Share the Road, Give Cyclists 3ft" which is now often interpreted by non-cyclists as "Leave 3ft of space on the edge of the road for cyclists to ride in. If they are not in that 3ft space, then it is the cyclists problem for not sharing"

3ft laws locally have made zero noticeable difference in how cyclists are passed in my experience. If I ride far right in a narrow lane nearly every driver will pass me closer than 3ft. (so of course I don't) If I ride on a bike lane stripe, many motorist will pass closer than 3ft.

Close passing is a problem very rarely I encounter and I don't give any credit to the law.

Al

What Al said. few people even know the law exists, and if they do they don't understand what it means.

WI has a 3 foot law? No one told the drivers. I won't complain...most people are quite accomodating, but I get about one per trip that if they know about the 3 ft law, think it is a maximum, not a minimum.

Thanks guys! Any comments about improvement or benefit of the law?

My experience has been that the change in the law didn't make any noticeable difference. The motorists who are good at driving, the vast majority, were giving me plenty of room before the change.

The pinheads and jerks are still pinheads and jerks after the change, but they have always been relatively few in number.

We had a 3' law go into effect here in Maine last year. I have noticed no difference in the behaviour of motorists.

I don't think these will change motorists' behavior. What it can do, though, is give an SA/DA a tool to prosecute with when needed.

We had a 3' law go into effect here in Maine last year. I have noticed no difference in the behaviour of motorists.

Was *passed* in Maine last year, goes into effect as a primary offense this year, Apr 1. I know this because it was on a handout in my son's driver's ed class. I thought it was great that they were making new drivers aware of this with a special handout. Also, the bicyclist section of the Maine Motorist's Handbook is exemplary and rather comprehensive. All the complaints I hear about (lack of driver) education in other states, I can't quite fault in ME.

Not that it makes much of a difference with driver actions anyway...

My experience has been that the change in the law didn't make any noticeable difference. The motorists who are good at driving, the vast majority, were giving me plenty of room before the change.

The pinheads and jerks are still pinheads and jerks after the change, but they have always been relatively few in number.

Same over on this side of the state. The thing that need doing, and what maybe I'll work on, is getting some mention in HS driver's ed classes and the defensive driving class traffic offenders take to avoid points on their licenses.

Again great feedback! How about any noticeable effect on police bias? Anyone have any stories or rumors?

Cyclist have been hit and killed by passing vehicles in AZ, however civil fines for killing cyclist (which are part of 3ft law) were not applicable as there were no eyewitnesses to confirm if the cyclist swerved into vehicle or if vehicle was passing to closely. There was a long thread several months ago about one such case.

Al

Interesting. We have a few reports here where a police officer witnessed a motor vehicle's unsafe passing and the police went after the cyclists demanding that they ride on the sidewalk (which is illegal.) Anything like that in states with the 3 foot law?

From FL perspective it means nothing. As I mention too much here
this is a nasty, mean culture here. People hit you with their carts in the
Publix, driving is an extention of that...... they really dont care.
If I get 24" from most cars Im happy. I couldnt imagine a cop around
here taking the time to enforce this.

In WI it appears to be 1973. See 346.075

http://www.legis.state.wi.us/acts89-93/73Act182.pdf

We've had the 3 foot law here in Minnesota for a number of years. In my opinion it has made no difference in driver behavior. I think where it will get used in a situiation where a drivers hits a cyclist but not too bad. Not enough for reckless driving or some other more serious charge then they'll hit him with the 3 foot law. But I think it will take a hit before this is ever enforced.

I would like to say, regardless of laws, Tucson is by far the best city I've lived in when it comes to the co-existence of cars and bikes. I think it has more to do with the fact that Tucson has a high number of bicyclers so drivers are used to them and have adapted accordingly.

Try to give your statute its own section/subsection number.

In Florida, our 3-foot statute (s.316.083(1)., F.S.) (http://www.flsenate.gov/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=Ch0316/SEC083.HTM&Title=->2007->Ch0316->Section%20083#0316.083) is embedded within the general requirements for overtaking that apply to all vehicles. Thus, no meaningful data, e.g., number of citations issued, can be derived since the number of citations issued for violation of the 3-foot part is comingled with other violations.

The main benefit I see from the 3 foot law is that if someone gets too close to me and I adjust (or break) a mirror, antenna or other vehicle feature, any complaint a vehicle driver may make to a Cop (or me) is proof they were not passing "safely". Since I'm just under 6' tall, they must stay out of my reach to comply with the law. Of course, I've been applying this rule unilaterally for decades whether riding a bicycle or motorcycle.

As far as the general driving public goes, I doubt you could get many of them to recite more than 5 or 6 traffic laws even using waterboarding. Stop signs, speed limits, double yellow lines, school zones, turn signals, stopping for school buses loading and unloading, etc, pretty well maxes out the typical driver (not that they obey the rules they can remember in the first place).

Throw in some obscure passing rule applying to bicycles and you'd pretty much have to be smoking a strong controlled substance to think one in a million non-bicyclists would know about it; much less modify their behaviour because it exists on the books at the state capitol.