Palmetto Cycling Coalition Action Alert
April 13, 2015

Contact your SC House member

NOW on H.3909,

"The Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety" bill

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Contact your SC House member TODAY and TOMORROW

The Coalition has a 5 part Safety bill in the SC state house, H. 3909, known as the Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety bill, that updates our laws and institutes stricter and more appropriate penalties for killing or seriously injuring a bicyclist or pedestrian.

Today and tomorrow, help get this bill into the House's

Transportation Subcommittee.

Especially if your House member is Representative R. Allison, J. Daning, J. Govan, N. Collins, G. Clary, or R. Felder, you have greater influence because they serve on the Transportation Subcommittee.

How to help:

1. Search for and Email your SC House Representative using this link. If your Representative is listed above, your email is especially important. Make sure you include your postal address.

2. Copy and paste the following template language into your email, but include your own reasons why we need Safer Streets and a Vision of Zero fatalities and serious injuries for bicyclists and pedestrians.

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Dear [Your SC Representative]:

H. 3909, also known as the Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Act, is important to me. Please place this bill on the agenda for the April 21st Transportation Subcommittee meeting. It is important to me because it updates many bicycle and pedestrian laws to modern standards and creates more appropriate penalties for killing or injuring a vulnerable road user.

H. 3909:

1. Amends the pedestrian signal law so when traffic-control signals are not in place, the driver of a vehicle must now stop to yield to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk.
2. Amends our due care law so in addition to pedestrians and bicyclists, it also includes a person operating an electric personal assistive mobility device, or a wheelchair, or a farm tractor or similar vehicle designed primarily for farm use. Further, it creates more appropriate penalties for killing or causing serious injury to any of these road users.

3. Amends/updates our special pedestrian control signals law so they're further defined to include walk and wait symbols, in addition to the words "walk" or "wait".

4. Defines a bicycle lane as being at least four feet in width with uninterrupted pavement excluding curbs, gutters and sidewalks, or otherwise constructed according to locally adopted state or national design guidelines.
5. Excludes low speed electric-assist bicycles from the moped regulation bill moving through SC House now. Define low speed electric-assist bicycles according to the League endorsed definition and make them subject to all the rights and duties of bicycles, as described in SC law Section 56-5-3420 (PCC's 2007 bike law updates).

Thank you,

[Your Name,

Your Address]

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Palmetto Cycling Coalition | www.palmettocycling.org