Southeast - New VA laws: texting, hands-free, open containers

I just posted some stuff about new VA laws to make things safer for cyclists:

http://www.vabike.org/new-legislation-hands-free-phones-texting-open-containers/ (http://www.vabike.org/new-legislation-hands-free-phones-texting-open-containers/)

VBF will be supporting these, plus some others:


"Stop for pedestrians in crosswalks," which will probably be reintroduced
Anti-cyclist-harassment, like South Carolina's new law, if we can get a patron
Any "complete streets" legislation that appears
Change the passing law to 3' from the current (and ridiculous) 2'

Thanks for posting the info. I look forward to learning more.

Good to know

What is South Carolina's anti-cyclist-harassment statute?

What is South Carolina's anti-cyclist-harassment statute?

It's on the Palmetto Cycling Coalition's advocacy page (http://www.pccsc.net/main.php), in the PDF file called, "Summary of H3006 Bicycle Law Revisions." Scroll down to Section 56-5-3445.

There's "vulnerable road user" legislation being talked about in Virginia, but we don't know yet what it will be.

Section 56-5-3445. It is unlawful to harass, taunt, or maliciously throw an object at or in the direction of any person riding a bicycle. A person who violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined not less than two hundred fifty dollars or imprisoned not more than thirty days, or both.

I wonder how many states have something like this? I assume that throwing objects at people is generally prohibited by other statutes. But it's nice to see it explicitly linked to cycling.