The North Carolina Department of Transportation is getting mixed reviews on its new recommendations for bicycle safety rules.
Cyclists’ groups support a proposal that would require cars to give them more room when passing, but they oppose another that would restrict them to one side of the lane.
In the latest legislative session, the General Assembly asked the DOT to create a study committee to come up with the new recommendations in order to cut down on the hundreds of collisions between bikes and cars each year. It included bicycle safety advocates, researchers and representatives from the trucking and farming community, among others.
But the DOT rejected some suggestions from that committee, including one that said there should be no change to a provision of state law that says bicycle riders should stay "as far right as is practicable." Instead, the DOT's proposal would require cyclists to stay in the right half of their lane.
Host Frank Stasio talks with WUNC's Will Michaels about the DOT's new suggestions for bicycle safety.