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The League is seeking an ambitious Director of Development to lead the organization’s development plan, with a strong emphasis on major donor development. We are looking for an experienced fundraising…

The League wants your help in advancing equity and women’s participation in bike advocacy. You game? We thought you might be. We’ve recently launched two initiatives to start institutionalizing some…

Research consistently shows that women shoulder more of the household responsibilities, including childcare and transportation. Whether running errands or shuttling kids, women often face additional considerations when it comes to…

Last month, we were excited to help launch the Washington Area Bicyclist Association’s new “Women & Bicycles” campaign with a $15,000 grant. Revolving around small social gatherings hosted by Roll…

“We are going to address bike safety head on… and we are going to pull from all our resources to do it.” At the National Bike Summit earlier this month,…

It’s been three weeks since the conclusion of the 2013 National Bike Summit — but the buzz is still rippling across the country. With 750 people in attendance, and our…

To achieve her dream of waving the Afghan flag at the Olympics, 16-year-old Salma Kakar rises before dawn, to train under the cover of darkness. For the new Afghan Women’s…

They’re here! We’re just five weeks out from National Bike Month and excited to debut our posters for May 2013. Yep, you read that right; instead of just one, we…

The “Vulnerable Road User” concept is a new and powerful tool — and it’s taking root throughout the country.

Recent legislative successes include the “Access to Justice for Bicyclists Act of 2012” in Washington D.C., the recent endorsement of a vulnerable user ordinance by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors (read more about that campaign here) and a statewide law in Utah. While VRU protections have proliferated in the past five years, they continue to take many shapes.

So, in this edition of Bike Law University, we explore the current laws and the concept behind them.

What are they?

Automobiles provide a shell of protection for their users — creating a safety disparity between cars and other road users. This is not to say non-automobile forms of transportation aren’t safe, but simply that there is a difference between what occurs when a car is hit at 25 miles-per-hour and what occurs when a pedestrian is hit at 25 mph. While the percentage of motorist deaths has fallen, the percentage of road fatalities that are bicyclists and pedestrians has grown in recent years (from 12 percent to 16 percent).

Vulnerable Road User laws increase protection for bicyclists and other road users who are not in cars. They are relatively new and states have chosen to protect vulnerable road users in a variety of ways. This includes usually involves 1) harsher penalties for the violation of existing laws when that violation impacts a defined set of road users or 2) the creation of new laws that prohibit certain actions directed at a defined set of road users.
 
Click the image above for the full chart.
Why should you care?

Safety: The vast majority of VRU laws provide for increased fines or civil liability in cases where a vulnerable road user is injured or killed because of negligence or as the result of a traffic violation. These laws increase the cost of unsafe practices that impact bicyclists and provide an incentive for safer driving practices, especially around cyclists and pedestrians. In this way the laws are much like increased fines in work zones, which promote construction worker safety. VRU laws recognize that the type of simple negligence or traffic violations that may result in minor collisions between cars can have disproportionately severe results when a vulnerable road user is involved and provide ways to address those divergent results.

Challenge or charity. Fitness or friendship. There are so many motivations to start riding. For women, the social aspects of bicycling are often a key motivation and inspiration, making rides…