3-foot passing law awaits Maryland governor's signature

Baltimore Sun columnist Michael Dresser gets the whole idea of requiring motorists to give bicyclists a three-foot gap when passing.

After the Maryland legislators passed the 3-foot law on the last day of the session in Annapolis, many motorists vented about lawmakers capitulating to a noisy minority and the terrible troubles caused by bicycles in traffic lanes.

Here's what Dresser writes in “Sharing the road with bicycles is hardly a hardship”:

….”For decades now I've driven the back roads of Maryland, occasionally coming upon groups of bicyclists pedaling furiously but poking along by gas-driven standards. And at times, on curvy two-lane roads, their presence has actually forced me to slow down — sometimes for more than a minute or two — until the road straightened out and I could pass.

“And guess what? There was no permanent damage. Never was an appointment missed or a destination denied. The world kept spinning on its axis.

“Here's a flash for the internal combustion crowd: Bicyclists, even the Lance wannabes who live somewhere else, have a right to be on all roads except for a few high-speed highways. They do not impede traffic; they are an integral part of traffic. It has been thus since the dawn of the auto age. Should bicyclists stay to the right and use the shoulders when they can? Absolutely. But there are times when they have to use the travel lanes and the rest of us just have to learn to share.”

It's nice when a member of the mainstream media writes in support of bicyclists, instead of milking the mistaken conclusion that bicyclists don't belong on the road because they don't pay gasoline taxes. [Most bicyclists also drive cars, therefore they do pay gasoline taxes. Anyway, road funding comes from a wide variety of sources, among them property and sales taxes.]

Maryland's legislature is the latest to enact the 3-foot law. If Gov. Martin O'Malley signs the bill, it will go into effect on Oct 1, making the state the 16th to require that motorists give at least 3 feet to bicyclists. The others are Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi (effective July 15, 2010), New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin.

Let's hope the governor signs the bill, and Maryland motorists take sharing the road in stride.