Your support is essential to the success of a major new roadway safety campaign. Even if you do not ride a bicycle and do not walk except to and from your car, roadway safety still has to be a concern. Please take a few minutes to sign on to the campaign here – http://nysafestreets.org. and select TAKE ACTION.
As motor vehicles have grown larger, with increases in distracted driving and speeding, more cyclists and pedestrians are being seriously injured and killed. While we have seen some minor improvements to pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure, our roads are still largely designed and built to carry motor vehicles and are unsafe for all other users.
For these reasons, the Albany Bicycle Coalition has joined Walkable Albany and a statewide coalition of bicycling and other road safety advocates in our common effort to pass the NY Crash Victim Rights and Safety Act (CVRSA). The seven bills in the CVRSA will permit municipalities the option to lower their speed limits, mandate 3-foot clearance when passing cyclists, support Complete Streets initiatives that improve road safety for all users, better educate drivers to protect vulnerable road users, and provide support to those personally impacted.
As part of The New York Safe Streets Coalition’s launch of the campaign for the CVRSA, Albany Bicycle Coalition released the following short video: https://youtu.be/2qpVRHWNd1A.
For further CVRSA information, see http://nysafestreets.org.
The complete set of bills in the CVRSA are as follows:
| Speed Limit | Authorizes cities, villages and towns (outside NYC) to reduce the speed limit to twenty-five miles per hour. | S02021 (May) | A01007 (Paulin) |
| Sammy’s Law | Allows lower life-saving speed limits in NYC | S524 (Hoylman) | A4655 (Gottfried) |
| Complete Streets | Increases state funding where the municipality agrees to fund a complete street design feature. | S3897 (Kennedy) | A8936 (Fahy) |
| Complete Streets Maintenance | Includes, when possible, complete street design features in resurfacing, maintenance, and pavement recycling projects and further enable safe access to public roads for all users. | S5130 (Kennedy) | A7782 (Rivera) |
| Safe Passage | Require drivers pass bicyclists at a safe distance of min. 3 feet. | S4529 (Harckham) | A547 (Steck) |
| DMV Pre- Licensing Course | Educates NY drivers about safely interacting with vulnerable road users | S1078A (Gounardes) | A5084/7032 (Gallagher) |
| Crash Victim Bill of Rights | Guarantee rights & a voice for crash victims and their loved ones in legal proceedings | S8152 (Hoylman) | Glick |
Join the Push for Safer Streets for All – To do your part in pushing for safe roads, you need to contact both of your state legislators to express your support for the Crash Victims Rights and Safety Act.
Since many organizations that are not primarily involved with cycling, walking, or roadway safety should still have an interest in this initiative, you may want to sign your organization on to the campaign. You can complete this form.
Albany Bicycle Coalition 