D.C. Bicycle Advisory Council

On Tuesday, December 8, 2015 , the Committee on Transportation and the Environment will hold a Public Hearing on several bills related to bicycling. The hearing will begin at 11:00 a.m., Room 500 (fifth floor) of the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. Based on feedback from our general and committee meetings, BAC members will offer testimony. They will discuss two of four bills under consideration at this hearing, listed below: B21-0335  -  Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Act of 2015 - This bill makes changes to District law regarding motor vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians. It requires the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) to publish certain statistical and geographical data on its website, establishes a safety program called the Bicycle and Pedestrian Priority Area Program, orders DDOT to adopt an inclusive policy for accommodating all users of the District's roadways, and amends existing public safety laws by creating new motor veh...

Monday, September 29, 2014, Councilmember Tommy Wells, Chairperson of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, will hold a hearing on the "Bicycle and Motor Vehicle Collision Recovery Amendment Act of 2014" ( View Legislation ).  The hearing will be held at 12:30 pm, the John A. Wilson Building, Room 500, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004 This proposed legislation, co-sponsored by Council members Cheh, Grosso, and Wells, would adopt a comparative negligence standard for damages recovery in bicycle and motor vehicles collisions. Comparative negligence is a rule of law applied in accident cases to determine responsibility and damages based on the negligence of every party directly involved in a crash. Section 2 of the "Access to Justice for Bicyclists Act of 2012" would be amended to include the following: "Any individual who, while riding a bicycle, is involved in a collision with a motor vehicle, shall have the total damages re...

The next bimonthly Legislative Committee Meeting will be held at the Busboys and Poets , 1025 5th Street NW Teaism , 400 8th Street NW. The Wednesday, October 2nd meeting will begin at 6:30pm and last until around 8:00pm. Please feel free to join us to discuss the District's laws as they pertain to bicycling. The agenda will include a discussion of the recently proposed Used Bicycle Sales Amendment Act of 2013 introduced by Council Member Muriel Bowser . This proposed law appears reduce some of the legal and administrative hurdles involved with businesses interested in buying or selling used bicycles. The law also could provide an entry point for people unable to purchase more expensive new bicycles for sale at District shops. Some have argued; however, that the application of the proposed law would be onerous for bicycle stores and because of the potential of a "quick sell", could exacerbate bike theft not only in the District but also regionally. If you canno...

In one of the last acts of the last legislative session, the Council voted on D.C. Act 19-646, "Pre-litigation Discovery of Insurance Coverage Amendment Act of 2012". Passing 12-0 (Council member Barry was not present), this legislation amends certain sections of the "Compulsory / No-Fault Motor Vehicle Insurance Act of 1982", which lists several requirements that aim to facilitate settlements and to reduce the amount of litigation in the Superior Court. The amended Section 4a (h) contains the following provision: (h) For the purposes of this section, the term "vehicle accident" includes accidents involving bicyclists. This additional provision could have wide ranging effects with regard to protecting bicyclists involved in a crash. What this provision seems to suggest is that if there is a crash involving an bicycle and the bicyclists makes a claim or initiates a court proceeding against another vehicle, then that bicyclist is entitled to informatio...

The next Legislative Committee meeting will be Wednesday, February 1 at 6:30pm. The location will be Busboys and Poets at 5th and K Streets NW. David Cranor (At-Large) is the Committee Chair. On the agenda: Bicycle Access to Buildings law similar to New York, NY Complete Streets law Defining what is and what is not a bicycle for purposes of using bike lanes, trails and racks As always, we invite you to attend our meetings and contribute your thoughts.

The next Legislative Committee meting will be Wednesday, December 7 at 6:30pm . The location will be Teasim at 400 8th St NW . David Cranor (At-Large - Orange ) is the Committee Chair and will meet at a large table in the basement of the restaurant. The agenda for the meeting will be:  Review of letter seeking status of compliance with the Bicycle Safety Enhancement Act . Parking report - Now that we have it, we need to decide if there are any legislative actions. The report does not completely meet the requirements of the law - for example it was never made public and doesn't include an evaluation of routes to facilities.  What has long been cited as the law (and included in every iteration of the WABA / DDOT Pocket Guide) as 18 DCMR 1201.2--which states a presumption that the cyclist right to the right, but with a number of clearly defined exceptions--is not actually the law. This was changed in a piece of legislation from 2006 for Segways, to make them exempt from c...

Below is a letter sent by the BAC Safety, Education, and Enforcement Committee.  The letter addresses some of the areas of concern discussed in the Office of Police Complaints (OPC) report released September 29, 2011, " Improving the Safety of Bicyclists and Enhancing Their Interaction with Metropolitan Police Department Officers ".

Below is video of last week's hearing on the Enforcement of Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety; and Bill 19-475, Assault of Bicyclists Prevention Act of 2011 , Public Oversight Hearing held November 2nd at 11:00am in Room 412 of the John A. Wilson Building. To see what people thought about the hearing, please see the twitter responses .

Thursday, September 29, 2011, the District's Office of Police Complaints (OPC) and the Police Complaints Board issued a report entitled " Improving the Safety of Bicyclists and Enhancing Their Interaction with Metropolitan Police Department Officers ".  The report offers several recommendations on how to improve the relationship between the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and bicyclists as well as recommending a stronger and more communicative DC Bicycle Advisory Council. A copy of the OPC report appears at the end of this post (courtesy of the  Washington Area Bicyclists Association (WABA)). The 11-page report is the product of a February hearing before the Council of the District of Columbia's Committee on the Judiciary.  It discusses complaints from that hearing including 1) how MPD officers interpret the laws related to bicycling in the city, 2) how MPD officers ineffectively investigate crashes between motor vehicles and bicyclists, and; 3) the impression...

Below are items that were not large enough to be a their own separate entry but important to report: Metropolitan Branch Trail Walk Monday, October 3, 2011, the students, faculty, and parents at Archbishop Carroll High School will begin their Homecoming week by walking nearly 2 miles on the Metropolitan Branch Trail in an effort to keep Carroll the most affordable Catholic high school in the Washington, D.C. area. Each student has begun to sell raffle tickets and last year, students helped to raise nearly $60,000.  The Archbishop Carroll High School Walk for Education began 20 years ago as a healthy fund-raising activity. If you have any questions or need any additional information about the Walk, please contact Crystal Rucker , Director of Advancement, at (202) 529-0900 x160 or crucker@archbishopcarroll.org . "Assault of Bicyclists Prevention Act" Moves from the Committee on the Environment, Public Works, and Transportation Jonathon Kass , Director for Special Initi...

Photo by thedceye The Committee on the Judiciary will hold a public oversight hearing on the Enforcement of Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety , Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 11:00a in Room 412 of the John A.Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.  Council member Phil Mendelson is the Chairperson of this Committee with  Marion Barry , Muriel Bowser , Mary Cheh , and Jack Evans as Committee members. The purpose of the hearing is to discuss issues associated with the enforcement of laws and other rules that are intended to protect bicyclists and pedestrians.  The hearing will focus on how the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and other enforcement agencies have applied certain traffic laws or safety regulations. According to the Committee, there have been specific complaints and anecdotal evidence showing that the enforcement of laws has been inconsistently applied against bicyclists and pedestrians.  In addition, MPD will likely attend to discuss con...

The next scheduled meeting for the DCBAC Legislative Committee is October 5, 2011 at 6:30pm at The Union Pub , 201 Massachusetts Ave NE , Washington , DC 20002 .  Please check back, the date and location of the meeting are subject to change. The following topics will be discussed: 1. Complete Streets policy and whether a law would be better. 2. The Legislative Committee chair is in the process of putting together a Freedom of Information Act request for a bicycle parking report as required under the Bicycle Parking Expansion Act of 2007 . Also, the Committee will discuss drafting a letter to the Department of Public Works and District Department of Transportation requesting their status in implementing the Bicycle Safety Enhancement Amendment Act of 2008 's requirements. 3. Continue discussion regarding the District's proposed pedicab regulations from the previous meeting, which will include discussion of the following comments received by the committee chair: Rul...

At the last DC Bicycle Advisory Council meeting held Wednesday, September 7, WABA discussed its efforts to introduce legislation before the Council of the District of Columbia to create better protections for bicyclists who are harassed or threaten by motorists. According to WABA, the proposed law creates a civil right of action for an assaulted cyclist and   provides for attorneys fees if the cyclist-plaintiff prevails--thereby providing an incentive for attorneys to represent the victim. Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells will co-introduce an anti-harassment bill with Ward 2's Jack Evans and Ward 1's Jim Graham . Below is a resolution supporting the anti-harassment bill and the rights of  bicyclists who use of District streets. Resolution - Support of Bicyclists Rights

DCBAC is would like to here your comments and suggestions with regard to altercations between the District's Pedicab operators and the National Park Service Police (NPS) on or in the vicinity of the National Mall.  Also, DCBAC is interested in the public's thoughts on the proposed pedicabs operator regulations. DCBAC plans to gather this information and will likely present it to local and federal authorities. DCBAC would especially like to hear comments from actual pedicab operators.  Comments can be left below or you can send an email to dcbac@dcbac.org. As reported by various news outlets including Patrick Madden of WAMU radio and David Schultz of Transportation Nation , the District's pedicab operators have been targeted by the NPS Park Police as part of its “education campaign” designed to remind pedicab operators of the laws they have to follow.  According to some Pedicab operators, however, the Park Police have been targeting them unfairly for tickets and ar...

The Committee on Public Works and Transportation will hold a public hearing, Wednesday June 8, at 2:00p in Room 123 of the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. "The Pedestrian Safety Reinforcement Amendment Act of 2011”, Bill 19-0291, will be discussed. along with other items on the agenda.  The purpose is to amend the Pedestrian Protection Amendment Act of 1987 to rectify the amendment which went into effect on November 25, 2008, and to clarify that the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), pursuant to the District of Columbia Traffic Adjudication Act of 1978, has the legal authority to issue rules and fines. BAC found documents on the Committee on Public Works and Transportation that showed that DMV has enforced the act by ticketing bicyclists and pedestrians, which appears to run counter to the law's intent.  Tens of thousands of dollars have been collected over the last several years as a direct result of DMV's enforcement focus. The hearing...

Obstacles (photo by thedceye) As part of the fiscal year 2012 budget process, District of Columbia Council members, through their Committees, ask questions regarding a litany of topics so that they can make programmatic and fiscal decisions.  Recently, the Committee on Public Works and Transportation asked the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to provide answers to 21 questions related to its budget and operations. Question 17 on the Committee's list asked the agency to provide information about the amount and type of revenue collected within the Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Fund ( DC ST § 1-325.131 ) from fiscal years 2009, 2010 and year-to-date figures for 2011.  Specifically, the Committee was likely seeking information about the implementation of DC Law 17-269, the " Pedestrian Safety Reinforcement Amendment Act of 2008 " .

A few weeks ago, a certain BAC member stumbled while trying to explain the somewhat complicated legal terms called contributory and comparative negligence during a BAC oversight hearing ( which you can see here ) .  This topic has been discussed by several outlets over the past few years because according to WABA, it is essentially a " blame the victim liability standard ".  Understanding these terms may make the difference between you getting something for injuries sustained in an accident, especially if you are biking or walking around the District, Maryland or Virginia (1).   If an accident occurs, the assigning of fault or responsibility determines if the plaintiff (the person making a claim - usually the injured) or the defendant (the person or entity defending themselves against a claim) can receive compensation to repair themselves or their property.   Negligence is a legal term that assigns fault to someone a court determines as reckless or engage...