Four Feet, Please: New Pennsylvania Law

Good news on the bicycle front, as Pennsylvania amends its motor vehicle laws to require that motorists passing bicycles in the road maintain a four-foot buffer when passing the bike, and if they can't pass with four feet then they're supposed to wait until they can.



In Georgia, which has a 3-foot passing law on the books, bicyclists are wearing "3-foot jerseys".

Governor Corbett signed the legislation (House Bill 170) Thursday, and it becomes effective in sixty days.

Nobody believes that this will lead to "four-foot-mutaween" patrolling the streets, but the definition of an specific standard and the communication that if a driver can't pass while providing a safe space, they should wait until it is safe is an important opportunity for bicycle safety.

"I don't think this is a battle at all," Bike-Pgh's Scott Bricker said in the Tribune Review. "It's an educational tool to make sure motorists know we have a right to ride on the road."