New Safe Clearance Law in Massachusetts

[Omega Man]

It’s a little weird that this common sense operation needs legislation. It does apparently address crossing double yellow lines.

Massachusetts Vulnerable Road Users Laws Overview

What is a Vulnerable Road User?

Massachusetts now defines “vulnerable user” on our roads to include:

People walking and biking
Roadside workers
People using wheelchairs
Motorized bicycles, scooters, skateboards, roller skates, and other micromobility devices
Horse riders and horse-drawn carriages
Farm equipment
Future policies and guidelines can be created with vulnerable road users in mind.

Safe Passing | Who is this for: Motorists

Drivers will need to provide a “safe passing distance” of at least 4 feet when passing vulnerable road users. Massachusetts is the 36th state to define safe passing as at least 3 feet.

Motorists are explicitly allowed to cross a double-yellow line in order to pass “when it is safe to do so and adhering to the roadway speed limit.”

More here- https://www.massbike.org/new-massachusetts-vulnerable-road-users-laws-webinar-recap-faq
I wish people around here would wear some sort of reflective clothing when they are out on what our basically paved cart-path roads are.

OM

 

[kbasa]

It's been the law here for a few years. As a road cyclist, it's appreciated, though I still encounter plenty of people that seem to want to kill me.

 

[Omega Man]

It's been the law here for a few years. As a road cyclist, it's appreciated, though I still encounter plenty of people that seem to want to kill me.

Riding out your way always looked appealing. When I used to watch Jason Britton's motorcycle show ( https://www.jasonbritton.com/aboutus ) he always did a bit on his training- on his bicycle. He also sponsored a charity bicycle team.

OM

 

[kbasa]

Riding out your way always looked appealing. When I used to watch Jason Britton's motorcycle show ( https://www.jasonbritton.com/aboutus ) he always did a bit on his training- on his bicycle. He also sponsored a charity bicycle team.

OM

When my wife was diagnosed with Stage IV Non Hodgkins Lymphoma, I quit my position as president of the MOA to care for her. When she came out of chemo successfully, I rode and coached for Team In Training for 5 years, raising north of $30K by myself. There were four or five other folks on my team that rode motorcycles, one of who is an MOA member and spotted me even though I was pretty quiet about my motorcycle habits. Two wheels is two wheels.

Let me say that if you want to ride well, lower body and core strength is the key, especially if you like to ride with some gusto. I had super strong quads, glutes and core. We were still touring on our RT, but even with me, my wife and 70 pounds of camping gear, I was in the right condition to hustle it down backroads pretty well.

Bicycles will improve your riding, that's for sure.

They do a nice job on your cardio pulmonary systems, that's for sure.

Back to the 3 foot rule: With more and more people buying eBikes and getting out on them to run chores, I think these kind of passing laws are going to be helpful in keeping cyclists alive.

I'm sure someone will be along to tell me that cyclists shouldn't be on the road because (pick one "roads are for cars", "you cyclists need to pay taxes if you want to use the roads" or "we're all tired of waiting for you to finish playing with your toys, Lance Armstrong".

Hope springs eternal, though, doesn't it? Maybe we'll catch a break this time.

 

[pglaves]

I like that law but I chuckled when I read that it applies to passing "farm equipment." Who ever wrote that law has never met or passed a modern combine moving from field to field during harvest season. There is barely room to squeeze by, and a four foot clearance puts a car partly in the ditch on a lot of farm to market roads. Otherwise, I like it.

 

[Omega Man]

“Perfection is unattainable”

OM

 

[kbasa]

I like that law but I chuckled when I read that it applies to passing "farm equipment." Who ever wrote that law has never met or passed a modern combine moving from field to field during harvest season. There is barely room to squeeze by, and a four foot clearance puts a car partly in the ditch on a lot of farm to market roads. Otherwise, I like it.

lemme know if you ever see a combine on the road in Massachusetts. I lived there for 25 years and never did.

 

[akbeemer]

I like that law but I chuckled when I read that it applies to passing "farm equipment." Who ever wrote that law has never met or passed a modern combine moving from field to field during harvest season. There is barely room to squeeze by, and a four foot clearance puts a car partly in the ditch on a lot of farm to market roads. Otherwise, I like it.

Wouldn’t the car be the vulnerable vehicle in that situation?

 

[pglaves]

Wouldn’t the car be the vulnerable vehicle in that situation?

I think you are right!

 

[henzilla]

It's been the law here for a few years. As a road cyclist, it's appreciated, though I still encounter plenty of people that seem to want to kill me.

Has been in Texas as well and ditto on a few encounters

 

[akbeemer]

We live on a small road that is off a 70 MPH highway (aren’t they all in MT?) that is two lanes with no shoulders. The road leads up to two Continental Divide passes and has ranches spread across much of its 40 mile length. We get plenty of trucks hauling hay and livestock trucks spewing moisture of some sort. So I ask, who is the the vulnerable vehicle? Annie and me on motorcycles or these overloaded behemoths? Twice we’ve had an encounter with a huge round bale that got loose from an overloaded truck. Once on motorcycles we came upon the hay well after it spilled, but still quite the hazard at 70 MPH. The second time we were in a car and the bale came off a 1/4 mile ahead of us. Had there been an oncoming vehicle it would have encountered a 1000 pound bale doing 30-40 MPH. The driver kept on going, but there was a Trooper behind us that reined him in short order.

Most astonishing to me is that bicyclists ride this road quite often. I know it’s legal, I know they have as much right to be on the road as I do, but riding on that road is not smart. Additionally, Montana is habitually in the top three states with the most impaired drivers. I give bicycle riders as much room as possible, but some vehicles struggle to do so and some drivers aren’t even aware they are on the road.