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Capitol Day 2012: Legislative Issues/Contact Your Legislators

Submitted by Brent Hugh on Fri, 02/24/2012 - 12:33am

Contact your State Legislators

Bicycle and Pedestrian Day at the Capitol is April 2nd, 2012. 

Through an extensive feedback process with our members, supporters, allied organizations, and Missouri legislators, we have adopted the following as our top legislative priorities for 2012:

Safe Streets, Anti-harassment, Safe Passing, Anti-texting and Distracted Driving, Solving the "Bike Racks Cover License Plates" Problem.

See the details about each of these issues below.

Look up your legislator's contact information here and let them know that you support these issues:

2012 Legislative Priorities

Safe Streets
When unsafe actions on the road injure or kill others—whether pedestrians, bicyclists, automobile passengers, or other drivers--current law allows prosecutors to bring charges for trivial traffic infractions or serious (but difficult-to-prove) felony charges.  We support creating an intermediate step that will help get unsafe operators off the road, be easier to prosecute, and have more severe and appropriate penalties than minor traffic infractions. 
 
The proposed bill adds additional points when a driving infraction leads to injury or death, the extra points to be added only when judged as warranted by the court.
 
Anti-Harassment
Based on successful models in Independence, Columbia, and Greenwood, we support the creation of misdemeanor-level penalties for harassing or throwing items at pedestrians and bicyclists, and for throwing items from or at vehicles.
 
Safe Passing
We support improvement of the current safe passing of bicyclists statute by creating a minimum passing distance (four feet) and adding protection for bicyclists traveling in the shoulder (not covered by the current safe passing law).
 
Anti-Texting and Distracted Driving
We support expansion of the current anti-texting law to cover all drivers, regardless of age.
 
We also support efforts to reduce distracted driving, one of the leading causes of traffic injuries and deaths, including SB 717, sponsored by Senator Bill Stouffer, which makes distracted driving a specific offense.
 
Bike Rack Covering License Plate
Several Missourians have received tickets for driving with bicycle racks that partly or completely cover their rear license plate.  We support legislation what would create an optional, inexpensive third plate that could be displayed in the rear window of vehicles whenever something like a bike rack covers the rear license plate.
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