Oppose SB362 before House 2022-02-22

Subcommittee hearing 4pm Wednesday, 2/23/22

To sign up to speak: 


My email to subcommittee members

I need your help. Every school day, I either bike with my children to our bus stop or lead a group of kids biking to our elementary school. We bike on neighborhood streets in Arlington, and we can keep the kids safe by having adults ride to the left of the kids.  Periodically, I lead Kidical Mass Arlington group bike rides.


Last year, the Virginia General Assembly made our rides safer by eliminating the requirement that groups of people biking on the street move to single file when a car approaches from behind. This change -- allowing "two abreast" biking -- is safer for people cycling for many reasons: in addition to allowing adults to ride to the left of children, drivers are more likely to see two people biking beside each other than to see the back of one, and it reduces the distance drivers have to travel when passing cyclists.   

However, that safety improvement is at risk from being revoked by SB 362, which comes in from of the Transportation Committee's Subcommittee on Highway Safety and Policy tomorrow afternoon.  I need your help to stop or at least amend this legislation. Despite amendments added in the Senate, SB362 would require parents biking with children, and groups of people biking together to move to single file when a car approaches from behind. Police officers would be able to pull over families and groups and ticket them.  

Amendments that could help include:
1) Exempt families and groups  of people biking from the single file requirement, e.g. by adding the bolded underlined language to the bill: Persons riding two abreast shall not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic and, except for groups of persons including persons under the age of 18 or more than five individual bicycles, shall move into a single-file formation as quickly as is practicable when being overtaken from the rear by a faster-moving vehicle.  

2) Make the violation a secondary offense (similar to distracted driving before 2013)
No citation for a violation of this section shall be issued unless the officer issuing such citation has cause to stop or arrest the driver of such motor vehicle for the violation of some other provision of this Code or local ordinance relating to the operation, ownership, or maintenance of a motor vehicle or any criminal statute.

I have signed up to speak remotely to tomorrow's subcommittee meeting, but with a full time job and three kids, I unfortunately cannot guarantee I can make it. Hopefully, you will consider my comments.  I would be happy to answer any questions here or at 646-284-8894.

Thank you very much for your time and your service.

Gillian

--
Gillian Burgess
646 284 8894
gillian.burgess@gmail.com

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