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Programs; Advocacy; Safe Passing Legislation |
About Safe Passing 2009
Vulnerable Road User (VRU) Data - NEW! Added 4/9/2009
Texas Senate Stance and VRU Data by District - NEW! Added 4/11/2009
Safe Passing Bill SB 488 and HB 827 (2009) Language
BikeTexas Response to Senator Shapiro's Concerns
BikeTexas Response to Senator Patrick's Concerns
Archived
Safe Passing Bill 248 (2007) Language
Safe Passing Bill 248 (2007) Amendments
Safe Passing Legislation FAQ 2007
6/1/09, 10:20 am
ACTION UPDATE
Safe Passing Bill Passes Texas
House and Senate!
If and when it is signed by the
Governor, it will become Texas law.
The final version of the Safe Passing Bill, SB 488, was passed
yesterday by the Texas House. Today, the Senate
voted on it, and overwhelmingly voted to pass it.
That was the final step
for the bill to complete in the Legislature. Now, it will be sent to
Governor Perry, and we are cautiously optimistic that he will sign it into law.
We will know the outcome by June 21, the last day the Governor can sign or veto
bills.
Thank you all for your help
and support so far. We will keep you updated on the bill's progress. To read the
bill text, see the bill authors, or check the record votes, click here.
5/20/09, 11:20 am
ACTION UPDATE
Safe Passing Bill Leaps Another Hurdle!
It is one step closer to being enacted into law.
The Safe Passing Bill, SB 488, was passed yesterday by the Texas House under the
steady hand and watchful eye of Representative Linda Harper-Brown (R-Irving).
SB 488 had previously passed the Senate and been sent to the House
Transportation Committee. The Transportation Committee passed SB 488 with
slightly different language than the Senate version.
Yesterday, it was passed by the full House. Now the bill will go to a House/Senate Conference Committee to reconcile
the two versions of SB 488.
Representative Harper-Brown and Senator Rodney Ellis D-Houston are
likely to co-chair the Conference Committee. After the Conference Committee the bill must pass the House and Senate
again.
We
will keep you updated with any new developments. This is a major
milestone in the progress of the bill, but we are not out of the woods
yet!
Click here to see the bill's progress, and to read the text of the Safe Passing Bill.
5/7/09, 7:00 am
ACTION UPDATE
Current Status of 2009 Safe Passing Bill CSSB 488 / CSHB 827
Safe Passing
Bill (SB 488) passed the House Transportation Committee and has been sent to the
Local and Consent Calendar
The Senate version of the Safe Passing Bill (SB 488) passed the House
Transportation Committee on Tuesday May 5th. SB 488 was sent to the Local and
Consent Calendar to be scheduled for a vote on the House floor. Please follow this link to read SB 488;
the "engrossed" version is the current version.
The
Senate version is replacing the House version of the bill, which contained a
problematic amendment for cyclists - with the concerns of some House members
addressed in the Senate bill, the House version is finished.
In upcoming weeks, SB 488 may
receive a vote on the House floor. We will keep you posted when we receive
updates. At this time, no action is necessary; however, please stand by
for additional SB 488 Action Alerts.
4/21/09, 5:30 pm
ACTION UPDATE
Current Status of 2009 Safe Passing Bill CSSB 488 / CSHB 827
Safe Passing Passes Full Senate,
Vote is 28-2! **
Thanks to Cyclists in Suits
participants for a successful lobby day.
The 2009 Safe Passing Bill, Senate Bill 488 was
passed today by the Texas State Senate by a vote of 28-2**.
**[Update: though the clerk read the vote as 28-2 after the vote, the Legislature's website now records the vote as 25-5. Voting no were Senators Averitt, Fraser, Hegar, Jackson and Nichols.]
Over
the last two weeks, BikeTexas has been working with Senators Rodney Ellis
(D-Houston) and Dan Patrick (R-Houston) and their staff to craft language that
would address Senator Patrick's concerns while still preserving the safety
benefits of the bill. This afternoon, Senator Ellis reintroduced the bill and
Senator Patrick then offered a floor amendment to substitute the compromise
language. Senator Ellis accepted the amendment, and the bill passed with 28
voting yes and 2 voting no.
Click here to see the tentative
amended version of the bill (the official version is not yet posted on the
Legislature's website). We have not been able to find out which senators voted
no, but when that information is available it will be posted here.
Final coauthors in the Senate were
Senators Ellis, John Carona (R-Dallas), Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) and Kirk
Watson (D-Austin). As we informed the Cyclists in Suits participants
yesterday, Senator Florence Shapiro (R-Plano) did not sign on as a coauthor of
SB 488. Due to an unfortunate miscommunication with her staff, we mistook her
coauthoring of a different bike-friendly bill (SB 2041, requiring bike questions
on the driver's license exam) for coauthoring the Safe Passing bill. We
apologize for any confusion this caused.
Thank you to everyone who participated in Cyclists in
Suits!
Turnout was great for our BikeTexas bike lobby day
yesterday, and we believe
that your strong showing was a powerful factor in the sudden movement
on Safe Passing in the Senate. With about 75 cyclists attending, all
sporting bike pins, we made for an impressive sight in the House and Senate
galleries during the bike resolutions. We seemed to make an impression on the
legislators, and we got tons of positive feedback from our office
visits.
Thanks so
much to those who coordinated buses and carpools to Austin: Michael
Hennessey of Bexar Trails, Woody Speer of BikeHouston, and especially Michelle
Holcomb and others at BikeDFW, who rallied more than 40 people to get on a bus at 3 am! It
was a blast and we'll give the full report in the next newsletter.
4/15/09, 11:30 am
ACTION UPDATE
Current Status of 2009 Safe Passing Bill CSSB 488 / CSHB 827
House Transportation Committee
Passes Safe Passing Bill
Late Amendment by Committee Has
Problems
The 2009 Safe Passing Bill, House
Bill HB 827 was heard and passed yesterday by the Texas State House Committee on
Transportation by a vote of 8-0.
Unfortunately, the committee
amendment to HB 827 includes problematic provisions. We have been here
before and BikeTexas is asking cyclists to view the bill, even in its current
unsatisfactory state, as a vehicle to get us to final passage of a Safe Passing
Bill with the right provisions in place. We still have a number of opportunities
in the process to remove or effectively resolve the problem parts. (For the bill text, check our website; we'll post it when the committee updates the language.)
Two
additions are of most concern. First is a provision inserted by the
committee requiring that vulnerable road users must operate within three feet of
the right edge or curb of the roadway (Proposed Section 545.428
(a)(4)).
Second is language stating that the Safe Passing law may not
apply to a road without to two lanes in the same direction "with a total width
not less than twenty four feet". In other words, it would only apply on 4-lane
roads (two lanes in each direction). This is in response a BikeTexas proposal to
incorporate language from the 2003 "Move Over Law", passed in the 2003
legislative session, to protect law enforcement officers on the side of the
roadway (Proposed Section 545.428 (b(1)). BikeTexas had offered the "Move Over"
language in response to legislator concerns and after conferring with several
Texas bicycle advocacy leaders.
This provision requires motorists to
reduce speed to 20 mph below the posted speed limit if approaching a vulnerable
user and not able to provide three-feet clearance. The "Move Over" provision did
remain in the version passed by the Transportation Committee.
The
prohibition against the "right-hook" was removed by the Committee. The
"left-hook" provision remains in the bill (Proposed Section 545.428 (d) and
(e)).
These changes appear to have been added as a result of informal
input to the Committee from other legislators. BikeTexas staff is making
inquiries to get more details on this development.
Many Texas cyclists
understand these provisions are unworkable in the context of current Texas
Transportation Code (TTC) concerning bicyclists as well as in practice of safe
cycling techniques on the roadway.
The bill is still in the middle of
the legislative process and BikeTexas staff sees several opportunities to get
the Safe Passing bill back into a version that will benefit cyclists with its
legal, operational and educational merits.
There are a number of things on our side:
1. An active and concerned number of Texas cyclists,
2. Good relationships between cyclists and a significant number of Texas legislators,
3. Existing TTC language on operation of bicycles on the roadway that is consistent with best safe cycling practices,
4. A legislative process with a number of remaining options,
5. Time, albeit a modicum of time in a legislative session, and
6. Cyclists in Suits
Texas Bike Lobby Day on Monday, April 20: well-timed to bring cyclists
to the Capitol to bring home the message to every legislative office.
Your participation is needed more than ever!
And finally, BikeTexas has great faith and confidence in the authors of the 2009 Safe Passing Bill in the House and Senate
to ensure that only a bill that significantly improves conditions for
cyclists in Texas roadways will pass out of the Legislature.
What Texas Cyclists Can Do
Please
continue to communicate with your representatives and their staff.
Their staff are so busy at this point in the session that the most
effective communication is to tell them directly what you want. They
can transmit that message to their bosses much more easily and
effectively than a discussion or debate of what has transpired so far.
Our
message is that we need a bill with workable provisions to reduce the
over 1000 annual deaths of vulnerable road users, focusing on the
educational value of the bill but certainly using the legal provisions.
And of course, please come to Cyclists in Suits on Monday, April 20.
This event is especially well-timed in the 2009 legislative session to
bring cyclists to the Capitol to deliver the message to every
legislative office. Your participation is needed more than ever!
Approximately 50 cyclists per year are killed in bicycle-automobile crashes in Texas. About 40 percent of those are killed by motorists traveling in the same direction. Most of those 20 deaths per year could be prevented if this law were enacted and obeyed by motorists.
The Safe Passing Law, modeled on the Move Over Act (for emergency vehicles) which passed in the 2003 Texas legislative session, simplifies the punishment issues and provides a clear framework for identifying the obligations of a passing motorist to either move over or slow down when passing a cyclist. With this law, the vision of “Share the Road” can be fully realized.
Currently, if a motorist hits another motorist from behind liability is more clearly established. However if a motorist hits a cyclist from behind, there is rarely a consequence because the motorist can say “the bicyclist swerved into me as I was passing”. Cyclists are unlikely to swerve more than three feet.
In Texas’ regular legislative session in 2005, the Safe Passing Bill sponsored by Senator Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) was defeated by fewer than four votes in the Texas State Senate.
In Texas’ regular legislative session in 2007, the Safe Passing Bill co-authored by Senator Rodney Ellis and Chairman John Carona, made it through 90% of the legislative process but only 23% of the 6,190 bills that were filed in 2007 made it through the legislative gauntlet. Although cyclists were disappointed that we did not get the three feet minimum passing clearance passed into law in 2007, it was substantially more successful than in the 2005 session.
In Texas' regular legislative session in 2009, the Safe Passing Bill was filed in the Senate by Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) and Chairman John Carona (R-Dallas) as SB 488 on January 15th, and the companion bill was filed in the House by Linda Harper-Brown (R-Irving) as HB 827 on January 27th.
Encourage your state senator and representatives to vote in favor of the legislation in 2009 and participate in opportunities to attend legislative committee meetings and the 2009 BikeTexas Cyclists in Suits - Bike Lobby Day.
If you don’t already receive the monthly BikeTexas Today e-newsletter and periodic action alerts, sign-up today to stay informed and get the latest news on cycling issues in Texas. To register for the e-newsletter, please send an email to
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