Bike-Friendly Bills

Here's a list of legislation in the current NC session directly or indirectly impacting cyclists:

• NC-SB 12 would “Ban Mobile Phone Use While Driving”
• NC-HB 9 "Ban Texting While Driving"
  (passed in the House; now in the Senate...)
• NC-SB 219, "Report Bicycle Crashes to Law Enforcement"
  would make more car-bike crashes require a police report by lowering the minimum damage from $1000 to $500 for the bicycle.
• NC-HB 68 "Prohibited Use of Electronic Devices/Driving"
• NC-SB 334 "Department of Transportation Reforms"
  seeks to cut a lot of politics out of transportation spending--a goal of our new guv.
• NC-HB 148 and -SB 151 “Congestion Relief/Intermodal Transport Fund”
  allows public transit projects to build supporting bike/ped infrastructure. (Thank South Raleigh's Congresswoman Deborah Ross for this one!)
• NC-SB 955 "Bicycle Lights at Night"
  seeks to require a taillight instead of rear reflector
  

(Thanks to NCATA's Ed Harrison for identifying and analyzing these Bills)


The North Carolina Active Transportation Alliance (NCATA) is a fairly new statewide advocacy organization working to improve nonmotorized transportation across NC. NCATA's new Spring 2009 newsletter is now available online at www.ncactive.org and has lots of updates on funding sources, advocacy events and general information about the organization. Download the newsletter and pass it along to friends, colleagues, club members, etc. and consider joining the organization to help support outreach and policy work for human-powered transportation (an individual membership is only $15!!!).