[BikeLongmont] road safety bill introduced

[Richard Masoner]

A bill has been intorduced to the Colorado House Transportation
Committee that will simplify some of the rules that bicyclists must
follow in Colorado. Summary of proposed changes to Title 42:

* Bicyclists will be permitted to use the right arm to signal right
turns. Currently, bicyclists in Colorado must use the left arm to
signal all turns.

* The single-file requirement will be relaxed. Currently, bicyclists
must ride single file whenever there's an automobile within 300 feet.
This is regardless of the fact that you can't tell when there's a car
300 feet behind you, and this restriction applies even when you're
riding on an eight foot shoulder. The proposed change only states that
bicyclists can ride side-by-side if they will not impede other
traffic.

* Currently, pedestrians-on-bikes[1] must dismount before crossing the
road on a crosswalk. The new bill will strike that requirement from
the law.

More details are at:

 http://bicyclecolo.org/site/page.cfm?PageID=574

This bill is good for cyclists. Amazingly, a similar bill was defeated
in 2002. Encourage your state rep and senator to pass this bill

RFM
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ENDNOTE:
[1] "pedestrians-on-bikes" is a cliquish, snobbish code-phrase for a
bicyclist riding on the sidewalk.