Bike Walk Tompkins continues to participate in the Safe Streets coalition led by Families for Safe Streets and Transportation Alternatives. As a member of this coalition, BWT is asking community leaders to sign on to a letter calling for passage of an 8-bill safe streets legislative agenda — known as the “Crash Victims Rights & Safety Act (CVRSA)”, including one to let Upstate municipalities set their default speed limit at 25 mph (instead of 30). The coalition held a press conference with state legislators on January 27, 2022.
Click HERE to sign the petition and contact your state representatives about the Crash Victims Rights & Safety Act.
Below are the 7 bills included in the Crash Victims Rights and Safety Act:
Speed Limit A1007a Paulin/S2021a May
Authorizes cities, villages and towns (outside NYC) to reduce the speed limit to twenty-five miles per hour.
Sammy’s Law A4655a Gottfried/S524a Hoylman
Allows lower life-saving speed limits in NYC
Complete Streets Funding S3897 Kennedy/A8936a Fahy
Increases state funding where the municipality agrees to fund a complete street design feature.
Complete Streets Maintenance A7782 Rivera/S5130 Kennedy
Includes, when possible, complete street design features in resurfacing, maintenance and pavement recycling projects and further enable safe access to public roads for all users.
Complete Streets Inclusion A8624 Barrett /S8394 Ryan
Requires the consideration of complete street design for certain transportation projects which receive federal or state funding or both.
Safe Passage S4529 (Harckham) for Upstate only; A547 (Steck) for all of NYS
Require drivers pass bicyclists at a safe distance of at least 3 feet.
DMV Pre-Licensing Course A5084 Gallagher/S1078A Gounardes; A7032 Rosenthal/S6202 Kennedy
Educates NY drivers about safely interacting with vulnerable road users
Crash Victim Bill of Rights A9152 Glick/S8152 Hoylman
Requires accident reports to be delivered to victims of accidents or their next of kin; requires victim impact statements to be delivered at traffic infraction hearings by injured parties or their next of kin; requires employers to grant leave of absence to employees delivering a victim impact statement at a traffic infraction hearing.