Important next step toward Parking Protected Bike Lanes in PA

After nearly a year since HB140 was passed out of the House in March 2021, the “Parking Protected Bike Lane and Pedestrian Plaza” bill aka, Susan and Emily’s Law, is finally going to get a hearing in front of the Senate Transportation Committee on April 4, 2022.

The bill is named after Susan Hicks of Pittsburgh and Emily Fredrick of Philadelphia. Susan, a University of Pittsburgh employee, was hit and killed by a driver on Forbes Ave outside the Cathedral of Learning.

This hearing is not a voting hearing, unfortunately. But, it’s an important first step.  Testimony will be provided by: the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia (in cooperation with BikePGH), PennDOT, City of Pittsburgh Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI), Indiana County Department of Planning and one individual bicyclist who sits on the Pedalcycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee to PennDOT.

The Senate Transportation Committee hearing on HB 140 will be held on Monday, April 4 2022, from 11am-12pm in Room 8 E-B, East Wing, Main Capitol Building. The hearing will be streamed live on the Senate website, Committee website, Senate Republican Caucus website, or Senate Republican Caucus Facebook page.  The recording of the public hearing will be saved on the Committee’s website as well.
We encourage you to watch the hearing!

As background, HB140 amends the Pennsylvania’s Vehicle Code to allow PennDOT to design and build parking protected bike lanes and pedestrian plazas on state roads. Currently, the Vehicle Code requires motor vehicle tires to be within 12 inches of a curb. A parking protected bike lane positions motor vehicles several feet away from the curb to allow a bike lane to be positioned in between the curb and a lane of parked cars.

HB140 is the third version of legislation to address the issue. HB1657 was first introduced and passed in 2018 by the House (187-0), but the Senate did not move it for a vote. In 2019, HB792 was passed out of the House (200-1), but a Senate version of the bill died on the Senate floor without a third vote. In 2021, House Representative David Maloney (R-Berks) introduced the legislation a third time and it passed in March 17, 2021 (201-0).

Previously, the bill had one opponent in the Senate, Senator John Sabatina (D-Phila), who happened to be the senior Democrat on the Senate Transportation Committee. But, his resignation from the Senate in January 2022 cleared the way for the bill to be finally considered by the Senate on its merits.

Be sure to check out this video of our 2019 Parking Protected Bike Lane Pop-up demonstration in East Liberty, in cooperation with Rep Sara Innamorato, Healthy Ride, and Pittsburgh’s DOMI. Several elected officials were in attendance, such as: Pennsylvania Senators Jay Costa and Lindsey Williams, State Representatives Sara Innamorato and Dan Miller, Pittsburgh City Councilors Erika Strassburger and Deb Gross, and the (former) Mayor’s Chief of Staff, Dan Gilman.