It’s official. GARI members met this evening and officially voted to merge with the Providence Bicycle Coalition. This was the last hurdle we needed to get over to pave the way to merge the two organizations. In a short while, when all the legal paperwork is completeled, the Rhode Island Bicycle Coalition will be born. Thanks to Sue Barker for all the work she put into this merger!
Stay tuned… the upcoming months will be filled with a new site look, new logo, and whatever else we can all dream up.
Over the course of the next two years, RIDOT is scheduled to completely repave Elmwood Avenue. I will be meeting with some people this Thursday @ 11am to discuss potential bicycle and pedestrian improvements that might be done in conjunction with the repaving work. If you frequent this area or just have a vested interest in this road, please let me know
I’d like to get all feedback by Wednesday @ 5pm, so I can compile it all for the meeting during the next day.
According to to a report posted on the Target 12 website, the recently passed Move Over law, requiring motorists to change lanes or at least slow down when passing an emergency vehicle, simply isn’t working. Target 12
wired up a state police cruiser and went undercover to put the law to the test. We also had Trooper Jacques “pull over” one of our undercover cars on a local highway.
One car passed dangerously close to Trooper Jacques as he got out of his cruiser. A tractor trailer passed so close to our car that it rocked the hidden camera. And the trend continued, car after truck, blatantly ignoring the law.
Why does this matter? If motorists don’t bother to obey a law, even when this law directly involves how they should interact with police, what makes anyone think they will head a 3-foot law for bicyclists? Representative Gemma, Newberry, Fox, and Schadone have introduced such legislation (H7243), which would introduce something similar to other state 3-foot laws into our motor vehicle codes. We worked with Representative Gemma last year to try and amend this 3-foot legislation into something, which we felt would be more effective, and will be doing so again this year.
The current bill is scheduled for a house hearing on Wednesday March 24th in the House Judiciary Committee. We will release our revised suggestions prior to this hearing and may be asking for cyclists to come out in support of the changes. Stay tuned…