MEASURE WOULD GIVE CYCLISTS MORE PROTECTION BILL AIMS FOR 3-FOOT BUFFER ZONE ON ROADS FOR BIKES.

Byline: EDWIN GARCIA Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO -- Bicyclists who share the road with cars and trucks soon could be pedaling with less angst under a proposed law that would create a 3-foot buffer zone around cyclists.

Assembly Bill 60, introduced by Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, is gaining traction among serious cyclists and parents whose children ride bikes to school.

Current law requires a motorist overtaking a bicycle traveling in the same direction to pass to the left at a ``safe distance'' or face fines of up to $250.

The proposed law would require the driver to keep a minimum of three feet away, without interfering with the safe operation of the bicycle. Violators would face a $250 ticket.

The measure also would allow a motorist to swerve away from the bike and to cross the double-yellow line into a center turn lane.

Under existing law, that center lane can be used only to make left turns and, in some places, U-turns.

Nava introduced the measure after the death of Kendra Chiota Payne, a UC Santa Barbara triathlete who was struck by a passing truck while training alongside a road.

``That was a situation that just cried out for some kind of relief,'' said Nava, a former prosecutor, adding that six states already have similar buffer laws.

The number of injury accidents caused by bike-car collisions have generally declined since at least 1999, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The most recent statistics from January through September 2006 showed 7,759 injury collisions and 114 cyclist fatalities.

It is not known how many of the collisions resulted from motor vehicles passing bicycles.

But the bill faces an uphill climb against the same forces that helped defeat Nava's similar bill last year.

Opponents, including the Teamsters Union, worry that drivers forced to swerve around cyclists would place themselves on a collision course with oncoming traffic, especially on narrow roads.

``The bill puts drivers, particularly commercial drivers, in a very difficult place since you're expected to keep a certain distance from bicyclists, and bicyclists are not required to keep a certain distance from you,'' said Barry Broad, a lobbyist for the California Teamsters Public Affairs Council.

And driver safety groups worry that using the center lane for passing could lead to head-on collisions.

``You can conceivably get into a situation where you've got bicycle traffic on both sides of the roads, and you've got two drivers in the center lane,'' said Sean Comey, a spokesman for the Auto Club of Northern California. ``You can have two vehicles accelerating toward each other in the same lane, in the opposite direction.''

The Northern California Auto Club opposed the measure last year but hasn't taken a stance this time.

``Ultimately, we share the goal of trying to decrease injuries and deaths,'' Comey said. ``It's just a question of how you achieve that goal.''

egarcia(at)mercurynews.com

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