Drivers on city streets are required by law to provide a “safe” distance when passing cyclists — but some elected officials feel that vague language still puts bikes in harm’s way.
Council Transportation chair Ydanis Rodriguez (D- Upper Manhattan) introduced a bill last week to require vehicles passing cyclists provide at least three feet of space or risk a $50 ticket.
Council members met on Thursday to mull over Rodriguez’s legislation, along with four other bills aimed at making streets safer.
At the hearing, city Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said she supported city legislation to establish a safe passing distance, noting that it would “provide specific easily understandable guidance to motorists.”
A state law passed in 2010 simply requires motorists to pass cyclists at a “safe” distance, and the main value of the proposed city law would be to educate drivers, Trottenberg said.
“When you have that three-foot passing rule it just puts in people’s minds, ‘Oh, I need to give cyclists a decent amount of space,” Trottenberg explained. “Part of that message too is, ‘Motorists: If you can’t safely get around the cyclist, take a deep breath and get up to the intersection.”
Council members also heard testimony on a bill to equip trucks contracted with the city with side guards to keep cyclists and pedestrians from falling underneath the vehicles in an accident.
Lawmakers also deliberated on legislation to force people over the age of 16 to buckle up while in the backseats of cars; a bill to limit spills by concrete trucks on city streets; and another that would give cyclists some recourse when they’re unfairly ticketed by cops.
The hearing was held less than two weeks after the 25th cyclist was killed in New York City this year.
Families for Safe Streets member Mirza Molberg led the City Council in a reading of the names of those bicyclists. Molberg’s girlfriend Lauren Davis was slain by a motorist while riding a bike in Brooklyn in 2016.
