Get Ward On Board: Pass the Parking-Protected Bike Lane Bill in 2020!

We spent all of last year asking you to call and email your State elected officials, attend Parking Protected Bike Lane demonstrations, and generally build support for this simple fix to our vehicle code that will help make Pennsylvania’s streets safer for all.

Senator Kim Ward of Westmorland County, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, is the key decider as to whether or not the parking-protected bike lane bill gets a vote in 2020. HB792 was passed out of the House in June and was referred to the Senate Transportation Committee in July 2019.

Until a clean HB792 is passed and enacted into law, PennDOT is prevented from approving or installing parking-protected bike lanes anywhere in the Commonwealth.  Cities like Harrisburg, York, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia can’t get parking-protected bike lanes because of a quirk in the vehicle code that requires cars to park 12″ from a curb.

Passing this legislation will help cities and towns create safe places for people to walk and bike to work, school, to run errands, and to get to regional trail systems.

Every day that the legislation doesn’t move to fix the vehicle code, time runs out for parked car protected bike lane projects throughout Pennsylvania to make streets and roads safe for bicyclists and pedestrians.

There is a high risk that yet another paving season will go by without this problem being resolved — unless HB792 is enacted! After passing the House by a 200-1 vote, the Senate has had five months to pass a clean HB792 in this session. Continued delay by the Senate prevents cities and towns from making their streets and roads safe and incurs greater cost to their projects.