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Over the last decade and a half, the adoption of safe passing laws has been one of the most prominent successes of bicyclist advocates. Every year since 2006 at least one state has adopted a safe passing law.
Three things that happened in Washington in May: 1. The Senate is pushing to get their Automated Vehicle Legislation passed. The League has been advocating for the bill to require automated vehicles to pass a “vision test” before they hit the market.
The National Transportation Safety Bureau released its preliminary findings on the Uber automated vehicle crash in Tempe which killed a pedestrian walking her bicycle.
On Sunday night, an autonomous vehicle operated by Uber hit and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, AZ, as she was walking her bicycle across the street. Tell your Senators to require automated vehicles to to prove they can detect and respond to bicyclists and pedestrians.
NHTSA update of 5-Star Rating System includes crash avoidance technologies for first time.
Washington’s historic transportation investments in bicycling, health, and safety are in jeopardy because of potential action by Governor Inslee on a low carbon fuel standard. It doesn’t have to be this way. Take action today. Over the past six months, thousands of caring Washingtonians like you have asked state leaders in Olympia to make bold investments in our transportation future by making it safer and easier to bike and walk.
The National Highway System (NHS) needs to be safe for bicyclists. Most bicyclists will never ride on what they consider a “highway,” but the National Highway System includes many arterial streets where bicyclists regularly ride. In 2013, 157 of the 743 bicyclist fatalities (21%) reported by NHTSA were on the National Highway System despite the National Highway System accounting for only about 4% of all public roads. Please join us in supporting the efforts of the National Complete Streets Coalition to ensure that the Federal Highway Administration provides engineers with the proper tools to ensure that the National Highway System is safe for everyone, including bicyclists. Learn more about the need for action in the blog below.
New technology is coming for our roads, but what does that mean for you? It is hard to know what to think of self-driving cars, connected cars, and new safety technologies that augment the abilities of vehicle drivers. Last year, we asked on social media whether automated cars will increase or decrease safety for people who bike and walk – and most people said they didn’t have enough information to know. Thankfully, Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) has introduced the “Future Transportation Research and Innovation for Prosperity Act” or Future TRIP Act. The Future TRIP Act directs the Secretary of Transportation to establish an Automated and Connected Vehicle Research Initiative.
One of the most frequently asked questions we get these days is whether our work at the Congressional level is relevant and valuable to local cyclists. Tuesday evening in the House of Representatives we got an important part of the answer to that question. Without any warning, there was a vote to eliminate funding for projects that make new transit systems safer and more accessible for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Where did your city get the money for the bike lane on Main Street or the PSA campaign to educate motorists about the rights of bicyclists? It very well could have come from the federal transportation bill. And that funding is running out. The federal transportation bill is the source of a hundreds of millions of dollars that municipal, county and state governments use for biking and walking projects in their communities. Where do those federal dollars come from? The Highway Trust Fund, which relies predominantly on the federal gas tax. But the Trust Fund is in trouble. We’ve been spending more than we’ve been bringing in.