Local Motion Blog

This just in from the director of the VT Bicycle & Pedestrian Coalition, Nancy Schulz:

The latest Vermont Driver’s Manual recommends that drivers “leave at least four feet of passing space between the right side of your vehicle and a bicyclist.” (p. 40)

This language represents an improvement from the former text which called for a minimum clearance of three feet.

It’s important to note that this is a recommendation to drivers; it’s not statute.

Is this change somehow connected to the Coalition’s efforts in the last two legislative sessions to get a safe passing law through?  Hard to know.  (Another change is the deletion of a section of text instructing bicyclists about how to ride safely.  It’s unclear to me why this portion was dropped from the manual.)

Of course, the readers who will see this recommendation of four feet clearance are the young people who are learning to drive now, not the many thousands of drivers who are already motoring around Vermont.  Nevertheless, it’s worth celebrating all positive changes, no matter how incremental.

Nancy Schulz
VT Bicycle & Pedestrian Coalition

Tags: Share the Road

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