Safe passing of bicyclists; Bike/ped holidays bills up for hearings in Missouri legislature tomorrow

Two bills on our legislative agenda are up for committee hearings Feb 9th, 2011:

Biking near the Missouri Capitol

• HB 33 - Safely passing bicycle riders, sponsored by Rep. David Sater, in the House Transportation Committee
• SB 180 - Bicycle & pedestrian holidays on the state holidays calendar, sponsored by Senator Will Kraus, in the Senate Health, Mental Health, Seniors and Families

Contacting your legislators to support these bills is very helpful. Just click the link above to see committee members and contact any in your area, asking them to support the bill.  If none are in your area, contact the committee chair.

A brief email or phone call is all it takes--something like:

Dear Representative Denison,

Please support HB 33, the bill requiring motorists to safely pass bicycle riders, sponsored by Rep. David Sater.

Thank you!

Brent Hugh

Raytown, Missouri

More about the holidays bill (which Kraus also sponsored in 2010) is in this article.

If HB 33 passes, Missouri will become the 17th state with similar safe passing of bicyclists legislation.  Besides setting a minimum distance for safe passing--which will make Missouri's current law more enforceable--HB 33 fixes a couple of small but important technical issues that have surfaced with Missouri's current safe passing of bicycles law, which was passed by the General Assembly in 2005.