Committee reviews bicycle-signal and intersection language; outreach required by DMV

The House Committee on Transportation considered an amendment to a motor-vehicle bill that would revise how bicycles are governed at signalized intersections and require statewide outreach by the motor-vehicles agency.

The amendment, explained by Damian Leonard, legislative counsel, would insert three sections into the motor-vehicle bill: a provision clarifying that bicyclists must follow traffic control devices but may proceed when facing a pedestrian "walk" signal; a definition and rule set for dedicated bicycle control signals; and an education-and-outreach requirement for the commissioner of motor vehicles. "An individual, operating a bicycle shall follow all traffic control devices and traffic control signals, except that an individual operating the bicycle who's facing a walk signal may make a turn or proceed across the roadway or intersection, but shall yield to any vehicles or pedestrians in the roadway or intersection," Leonard read to the committee.

The amendment removes the previously proposed "Idaho stop" language that had allowed bicyclists to cautiously proceed through certain stop signs or flashing reds when clear of traffic. Leonard described the remaining signal section as preserving the pedestrian-walk exception and adding a new section for separate bicycle control signals. "Green means go. Yellow means that the green signal is being terminated and the red signal is coming. And then steady red means, stop," Leonard said while walking the committee through the signal rules.

Under the draft language, a bicyclist facing a steady red bicycle signal may not proceed across a lane where doing so would turn the bicycle across a line of motor-vehicle traffic — for example, from a bike lane that sits between a vehicle turn lane and a through lane — unless the bicycle signal turns green. Leonard said the provision is aimed at preventing conflicting movements at intersections where a bicycle lane is positioned between vehicle lanes.

The amendment also requires the commissioner of motor vehicles, in consultation with public-safety stakeholders, bicyclists, pedestrians, municipalities and law enforcement, to develop written and graphical outreach materials explaining the changes and existing rules, including safe-passing-distance guidance. Those materials must be prepared "on or before April 1 of next year," the proposed language says; the law change itself would take effect July 1. Leonard told the committee that the outreach requirement "will really be sort of summarizing existing law with the two changes that are made in this bill."

Committee members discussed practical questions about where bicycles may enter intersections, whether bicyclists would have to dismount to use a pedestrian crosswalk and how motorists and bicyclists should interact when pedestrian signals and vehicle greens are offset. Leonard repeatedly emphasized that where bicycles are in the crosswalk as pedestrians (for example, after dismounting), they are treated like pedestrians and must be yielded to, and where bicycles are in the intersection under a green with traffic they act like other vehicles.

No formal committee vote was recorded during the discussion. Members indicated informal support for placing the amendment with the committee's chair for next-day consideration and further action; outreach materials are scheduled under the bill language to be produced next year.