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UPDATED – TAKE ACTION: HB154 is waiting on the Senate

waiting-3ft

UPDATE: October 3rd: Thanks to your calls and emails to your Ohio State Senate representatives HB 154, the statewide 3ft passing law, has been referred to the Transportation, Commerce and Labor Committee.  This is the first step in bringing it to the full senate floor for a vote. But our work is not done until this bill becomes state law.

Please contact members of the Transportation, Commerce and Labor Committee telling them to schedule HB154 for a hearing at the next committee meeting. The committee chair is Frank LaRose (email) and the vice chair is Gayle Manning (email). If you are in Cuyahoga County and your State Senate representative is Tom Patton, he also sits on the Transportation, Commerce and Labor Committee, and he can be emailed here.

As noted below if you need talking points you can download some here in word or here in pdf.

Let’s get this bill passed in 2016!


Remember when we worked really hard to get HB154 through the Ohio House? That was great…good times.

NOW we need to get HB154, the 3-foot rule, through the Ohio Senate so it can become state law. As a reminder HB154 will help Ohio cyclists with two very simple changes in the Ohio Revised Code:

1.  The Ohio Revised Code in Section 4511.27 already requires that motorists pass bicyclists leaving a safe passing distance.  House Bill 154 sets the safe passing distance as “not less than three feet.”  24 states already have the “at least three feet” passing requirement.  The 3-foot rule is endorsed by the American Automobile Association and the League of American Bicyclists, the largest national organizations representing these two transportation modes.

2.  The Ohio Revised Code in Section 4511.132 already lists situations in which vehicles may proceed through an intersection controlled by a non-functioning traffic signal after stopping and yielding right-of-way.  HB 154 adds another situation in which “Failure of a vehicle detector to detect the vehicle” results in the light remaining red.   This is a situation commonly faced by cyclists, as a bicycle is typically not detected by metal detectors buried in pavement, meaning the traffic light is not “tripped.”

Please contact your local state representative and tell them to assign HB154 to the Senate Transportation Committee, pass it and bring it to the whole senate floor for a vote. 

Contact your state Senator here. If you need some talking points you can download some here in word or here in pdf.

We’ve waited long enough for a statewide 3-foot passing law. Help make our streets a bit safer by contacting your Ohio State Senator. Lets get this bill passed!