Lawmakers on the State House Transportation Committee have not yet come to an agreement on a bicycle passing bill.
The proposed legislation creates a buffer zone for cars overtaking a bicycle on roads and highways.
Proponents of the bill want to set a minimum distance between a passing car and a bicycle.
Currently there is no minimum requirement, rather the law states a driver must give a cyclist a “safe distance.”
Proponents went back and forth on amendments that would increase the distance between three to six feet. Lawmakers also spent time trying to make new proposed legislation fit with current laws.
Representative Lee Schoenbeck backed the idea of a creating a subcommittee to work out the necessary wording in the bill.
“I would suggest you appoint a sub-committee and you ask this committee to identify the three or four, because I’ve been listening, there’s three or four or five issues and if they were all written down on a piece of paper it would take three people sitting down with a couple of interested folks about a half-hour to solve this.” says Schoenbeck.
Lawmakers then tasked the subcommittee to examine current laws governing bicycle safety, and to determine the distance needed for safe passing on highways and in towns.
The subcommittee is also considering issues of road quality, and public education on bicycle awareness and safety.
