When learning to ride a bicycle, my pappy told me to get right back on the bike after I'd fallen off.
In a way, that's what the California Bicycle Coalition is doing to keep alive the fight for the 3-foot passing law. But instead of falling off the bike, supporters of the bicycle safety measure keep getting pushed off.
After lawmakers rejected the proposal for several years, they finally passed the law — Senate Bill 910 — last fall, only to have Gov. Jerry Brown veto it.
Now, the bike coalition is going back.
3-foot returns
In a recent newsletter, CalBike said they'll reintroduce the measure in a form that Brown said he would sign in his Oct. 7 veto message. That's when Brown explained that he supports the 3-foot buffer, but objected to a provision that gave motorists the option to slow down to 15 mph to pass instead.
The newsletter cites opposition from the California AAA and California Highway Patrol to passage of the 3-foot measure. For its part, CalBike rallied supporters to send some 1,500 letter of support for the bill to Gov. Brown.
So far, 19 states have enacted legislation that requires motorists to give a 3-foot clearance, or more, to bicyclists. Kansas, Georgia and Nevada are the latest states to enact it.
Nevada
The law went into effect in Nevada on Oct. 1, but the Las Vegas Review Journal reports that local police haven't started to enforce the law. A police spokesman told the newspaper:
“Our department is still evaluating what we're going to do with (enforcing) the law. There's some potential conflict in some cases with cyclists and oncoming traffic, so we're waiting to see what's going to happen with it.”
Protest
In California, proponents of the 3-foot legislation are planning an 11-day protest bicycle ride from Sacramento to San Diego April 12-22, 2012.
Presented by the Eric Okerbloom Foundation, the bicycle ride will draw attention to Gov. Brown's veto of the 3-foot passing law and his veto of a bill that would raise the fine for motorist use of a handheld cellphone from $20 to $50.
Okerbloom was struck and killed by a motorist who was texting on his cellphone in July 2009. His parents launched the nonprofit foundation to combat distracted driving and provide health care to working uninsured.
See the list of 19 states that have 3-foot passing laws.
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