DENVER — A bill that makes it illegal for Colorado drivers to block bike lanes is headed to the governor’s desk for his signature.
HB26-1237, or the Transportation Safety Modifications Act, prohibits any individual from “stopping, standing, or parking a vehicle in any portion of a roadway designated as a bike lane.”
But that’s not the only provision included in the bill that aims to protect Colorado cyclists.
What’s your experience biking in Denver? Watch our special report about the dangers people on two wheels face:
HB26-1273 also updates state statutes related to vehicle or traffic collisions by replacing the term “accident” to “crash.”
Cycling and transportation advocates say that specific change in wording is important because it shifts blame about those traffic collisions from victims to those potentially at fault, according to Skyler McKinley, who provided testimony about the importance of the wording in the law to the Senate Transportation & Energy Committee recently.
“When a plane crashes, we don’t call it an accident — because we demand answers, and we demand it doesn’t happen again,” McKinley said. “This bill asks Colorado to hold car crashes to the same standard. It’s a plane crash, not a plane accident. It’s a car crash, not a car accident.”
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Introduced in the state House on Feb. 18, the bill garnered unanimous bipartisan support and quickly made its way through the legislature, eventually passing the Senate on a third reading last week.
Denver7 reached out to Bicycle Colorado to get their reaction about the passing of the bill in the Senate but has yet to hear back. We’ll update this story once they provide comment.
