Saturday, January 10, 2015
Following the lead of many other states, California has enacted a new law, which took effect last September, requiring that car drivers maintain a minimum three-foot buffer when passing a bicyclist, an important revision to a previous state law which required drivers to pass bicyclists at a "safe distance."
The new law requires motorists to slow down and wait to pass until it is safe to do so, including on narrow roads. Three feet is roughly equivalent to a fully open passenger-side door, or the length of an acoustic guitar.