Our view: Pedal harder on bike safety

General Assembly:

“Biking enthusiasts were only one for three this year in lobbying the General Assembly for traffic safety laws that would cut their risks of injury when sharing the road with far heavier, faster motor vehicles.

The Virginia Bicycling Federation focused on three bills, reasonable measures all, that might have passed on a surge of goodwill this year, what with Richmond preparing to host one of the world's premier cycling events in 2015. Except that, well, there will be races for a couple of open congressional seats in November.

Though avid bicyclists might fall anywhere along the political spectrum from far right to far left, lawmakers are ever mindful with every piece of legislation in election years of where partisan advantage might lie. And in Virginia, every year is an election year. Republican Del. Barbara Comstock of Fairfax, not known as a bicycle friendly legislator in the past, sponsored a bill this year (HB 82) to apply the state's prohibition against following too closely to tailgating non-motor vehicles - e.g., bikes.

The bill passed in the usually hostile House, only to die in committee in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where, The Washington Post reports, Transportation Committee Chairman Creigh Deeds voted to pass it by indefinitely, despite his past support.”

~Writes Christopher Chung in an editorial of The Roanoke Times

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