BOSTON-GLOBE\Who taught you to drive? (New Mass. Bike Laws)

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ook.html

Who taught you to drive? A look at the state's new bike safety law
By Peter DeMarco, Globe Correspondent
Boston Globe | Posted 24-Jul-2009 06:01 AM

Passed a couple of bicyclists the other day who were pedaling
side-by-side on the street -- a no-no according to my last
article on biking laws. "They should be riding single file,"
I preached to my passenger.

Well, even driving columnists sometimes have to eat their words.
With the passage of the state's new bicycle safety bill, riders
can indeed travel two abreast down the street. And drivers can
get a $100 ticket for failing to move over for them.

The law, which took effect in April, includes several other
fines for motorists whose actions put bikers in danger. It also
evens the playing field, allowing officers to issue standard
tickets to bicyclists who foolishly run red lights or zip the
wrong way down streets.

Trouble is, hardly anyone knows about the new rules. The
Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group that
fought eight years for the passage of the safety bill, won't be
launching a publicity campaign until late summer. Most police
departments remain relatively unaware of the new bicycling code,
and it appears just a handful are enforcing it. The state
Registry of Motor Vehicles hasn't made a big announcement,
either, though it is promoting the new law through bicycle
education classes and various notices.

Part of the problem is that the safety bill's passage was a
bit of a surprise to everyone. It had been rejected three times
previously, so when it actually won approval on Beacon Hill
in January, "It caught us a little bit off guard," said
David Watson, MassBike's executive director.

It's taken his group this long to put together training
materials for police departments and to build a
soon-to-be-launched website for the public, he said.

The other big sticking point is that police can't begin
ticketing bicyclists for moving violations until the Registry
updates its computer system to keep track of the citations,
and that's not expected to happen until 2011 because of the
complexities involved, said agency spokeswoman Ann Dufresne.

Lastly, the law gives plenty of discretion to local police
departments in terms of educating officers about the changes.
Due to lack of funds, or lack of interest, that education
doesn't appear to be happening, though the law will be taught to
new recruits at municipal police academies starting this month.

That said, at some point -- be it now, next summer, or 2011 --
Massachusetts drivers and bicyclists alike will need to start
following the new law. Cambridge was the only city I found that
is actively enforcing it, so I asked Lieutenant Jack Albert,
head of its Police Department's traffic division, for a quick
primer.

As its name implies, the bicycle safety bill was passed
primarily to protect cyclists against their aggressive motoring
brethren, Albert said. No matter where you drive in the state,
you should be obeying certain provisions of the law right now.

For instance, it's now illegal to open your car door into a
bicycle lane with a biker approaching ($35 fine). If you're
on a one-lane road, you cannot squeeze a bicyclist to the curb
while passing ($100 fine). Instead, you must wait until you can
pass with a safe amount of separation, crossing a double yellow
line if need be.

You can also be fined for making an abrupt right turn and
cutting off a bicyclist (in bike parlance, a "right hook");
for zipping in front of a bicyclist after passing him; and for
failing to yield to a bicyclist as you would an approaching
motor vehicle when making a left turn.

"Even if a car stops and allows you to make the turn, if there's
a bicyclist oncoming, you have to stop for him, whether he's in
a bicycle lane or not," Albert said.

The new laws aren't exactly revolutionary. Drivers have never
had the right to cut off bicyclists or push them to the curb,
according to Massachusetts General Laws. But, well, it happens,
and probably too often, so some legal reinforcement was deemed
necessary.

"There's a lack of respect for bicyclists," said Georgetown
Police Chief James Mulligan, a cyclist himself. "Occasionally
I'll go on the sidewalk because the roads are so narrow, it
scares you. You can actually get hit."

The other half of the law, the part that allows police to
ticket bicyclists, isn't exactly new, either. Until now,
though, police could only issue municipal citations based
on local bylaws or ordinances, a hassle few bothered with.
Starting in 2011, police across the state will be able to
use the same tickets for bicyclists as they do for motorists,
copies of which will be sent to the Registry.

Some of the law is bound to be a work in progress, officials
said. For instance, it's unclear whether the ticket you get for
riding your bike through a red light will appear on your motor
vehicle driving record, or affect your car insurance rates.

Albert said he likes the changes except for the new rule that
allows bikers to ride side-by-side. "In 5 p.m. rush-hour traffic
that's not going to work," he said.

Still, even with its bumpy implementation, the law eventually
should create safer roadways for cyclists statewide, Watson
said.

"The motorist should always make the choice to protect the
bicyclist's safety," Watson said. "But bicyclists also endanger
themselves -- you see people running red lights, for instance.
That's something that we would like to see changed. If people
want to peacefully coexist, then everybody needs to act in a
predictable manner."