California is trying to get the 3ft.
I like the critics have to say so absurd perhaps it might make sense to get this into law.
So right now it is ok to pass inches within a car? WTF
I think he just talked him self right out of the bill becuase I am not going to cram myself on the side of the road in a 11 ft lane I am going to take it.
"Opponents argue AB 60 would create unintended consequences in a state stretching hundreds of miles, with roads generally 11 or 12 feet wide, not counting shoulders or parking slots.
''I think the objective is admirable,'' said Assemblyman Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar. ''But I just don't think our roads are wide enough to accommodate what they're trying to do.''
Huff said the math doesn't add up: A 2-foot-wide bicycle, a 7-foot-wide car and a 3-foot-wide buffer zone can't squeeze into an 11-foot lane and would cram a 12-foot lane.
AB 60 could solve one safety problem by creating another, forcing cars routinely to cross center lines into oncoming traffic to honor the 3-foot buffer, critics say."
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/mo...s/16305938.htm
Lawmaker pushes for wider bike buffer
By JIM SANDERS
Sacramento Bee
SACRAMENTO - A Santa Barbara assemblyman is fighting to change state law -- by 36 inches.
Democrat Pedro Nava, in memory of a 21-year-old bicyclist struck and killed by a trailer truck on a narrow Santa Barbara road, is pushing for a 3-foot buffer zone for bicycles that are passed by cars or other motor vehicles.
''It's from your nose to the end of your fingertip,'' Nava said. ''It's an easy distance to remember. And I think it's the least we can do for bicycle safety.''
Violators would be subject to base fines of $250, rising to about $875 once local fees are tacked on. Motorists could be charged criminally if a bicyclist were killed or seriously injured.
Nava is pushing his measure, Assembly Bill 60, in honor of Kendra Chiota Payne, a triathlete for the University of California-Santa Barbara who died in a morning training run last January.
Richard Payne, Kendra's father, applauds Nava's proposal but says nobody knows whether the collision that killed Kendra would have been avoided if AB 60 had been in effect.
''I'm not saying it would have saved her life, I'm saying that it could save future lives in terms of raising awareness and consciousness,'' said Payne, of San Francisco.
''I think (Kendra) certainly would be happy to see that other people were benefiting from an action taken because of her death.''
Statewide, bicycle collisions killed an average of 123 people and injured 11,101 annually from 2000 to 2005, according to the California Highway Patrol, which does not keep tabs on how many crashes stemmed from an unsafe pass.
Current California law does not specify a minimum clearance but says motorists must pass to the left at a ''safe distance without interfering with the safe operation'' of a bicycle.
Opponents argue AB 60 would create unintended consequences in a state stretching hundreds of miles, with roads generally 11 or 12 feet wide, not counting shoulders or parking slots.
''I think the objective is admirable,'' said Assemblyman Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar. ''But I just don't think our roads are wide enough to accommodate what they're trying to do.''
Huff said the math doesn't add up: A 2-foot-wide bicycle, a 7-foot-wide car and a 3-foot-wide buffer zone can't squeeze into an 11-foot lane and would cram a 12-foot lane.
AB 60 could solve one safety problem by creating another, forcing cars routinely to cross center lines into oncoming traffic to honor the 3-foot buffer, critics say.
Nava's bill also would allow motorists to overtake or pass a bicycle by using separate lanes currently designated only for left or U-turns.
The result could be disastrous: Cars that slow or stop in the lanes, preparing to turn, would be confronted by cars accelerating to pass bicycles, critics claim.
''If you're actually encouraging people to use that as a passing lane, it could create additional problems,'' said Sean Comey, spokesman for the California State Automobile Association, which has concerns about AB 60 but has taken no formal position.
(Distributed by Scripps-McClatchy Western Service,
www.scrippsnews.com.)