Washington's 3-foot buffer bill for bicycles passes House

A Washington state bill that would give bicyclists 3 feet of clearance from passing motorists has passed the House by a 63 to 32 vote.

The legislation has been passed along to the Senate, where it was transferred to the Transportation Committee.

You can follow the bill's progress in a feed in the upper righthand corner of my Northwest Cycling page.

The bill is labelled HB 1491 and was submitted by House member Jamie Pederson of Seattle. No action has been taken on a companion bill in the Senate, SB 5335, that's also in the Transportation Committee.

Roster

That committee is chaired by Sen. Mary Haugen. Her district includes Whidby Island and the Conner, Standwood and Camano area. Other members are Chris Marr, Dan Swecker, Randi Becker, Don Benton, Jean Berkey, Jerome Delvin, Tracey Eide, Ken Jacobsen, Fred Jarrett, Jim Kastama, Claudia Kauffman, Derek Kilmer, Curtis King, Kevin Ranker, and Tim Sheldon.

You can identify your legislators here and see if your Senator is on the Transportation Committee. If so, go ahead and send a letter to get this bill out of committee.

Current law requires that motor vehicles pass pedestrians and bicyclists at a “safe distance.” The proposed legislation puts a minimum of 3 feet on that.

The vote

In case you're keeping score, here's how the House members voted on HB 1491:

Yea: Representatives Angel, Appleton, Campbell, Carlyle, Chase, Clibborn, Cody, Conway, Cox, Dammeier, Darneille, Dickerson, Driscoll, Dunshee, Eddy, Finn, Goodman, Green, Haigh, Hasegawa, Hudgins, Hunt, Hunter, Hurst, Jacks, Johnson, Kagi, Kelley, Kenney, Kessler, Kirby, Liias, Linville, Maxwell, McCoy, Miloscia, Moeller, Morrell, Morris, Nelson, Ormsby, Orwall, Pedersen, Pettigrew, Probst, Quall, Roberts, Rodne, Rolfes, Ross, Santos, Seaquist, Sells, Simpson, Springer, Sullivan, Takko, Upthegrove, Van De Wege, White, Williams, Wood, and Mr. Speaker

Nay:  Representatives Alexander, Anderson, Armstrong, Bailey, Blake, Chandler, Condotta, Crouse, DeBolt, Ericks, Ericksen, Grant-Herriot, Haler, Herrera, Hinkle, Hope, Klippert, Kretz, Kristiansen, McCune, O'Brien, Orcutt, Parker, Pearson, Priest, Roach, Schmick, Shea, Short, Smith, Wallace, and Warnick

Excused: Representatives Flannigan and Walsh

Five other states are considering a 3-foot buffer law. They are Colorado, Iowa (actually 5 feet), Maryland, Rhode Island and Texas.

Currently, 12 states require the 3-foot minimum passing distance: Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin.

Thanks to Rollie for keeping me up to date on this…