EDITORIAL: Pedal forward with bill for bike safety
Nov. 24—Bicycle crashes are no frivolous matter in Pennsylvania; some state lawmakers just want to treat them that way.
According to the state Department of Transportation, 24 bicyclists were killed in Pennsylvania crashes in 2021 and another 754 were injured. Almost all of the crashes involved cars or trucks, and a majority occurred at intersections.
Pennsylvania has no bicycle culture and, therefore, scant infrastructure to ensure that bikes and motorized vehicles can operate safely together on streets.
That has begun to change as a matter of state policy, meshing with priorities including reducing air pollution and enhancing public health. PennDOT now includes independent bicycle trails and roadway bicycle lanes in its transportation planning and funding.
Recently, the state Legislature passed a sound bill that would have allowed municipal governments to use planters, other physical barriers, or parking lanes to protect bicyclists from traffic on busy streets. The bill was named for Susan Hicks of Philadelphia and Emily Fredricks of Pittsburgh, who were killed in bicycle-vehicle crashes in those cities.
Unfortunately, Republican legislative leaders could not resist the urge to use the bill as an element of political theater. They attached it to another bill that would authorize appointment of a special prosecutor to handle crimes committed on property owned by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, the mass transit agency serving Philadelphia.
The SEPTA bill is part of legislative Republicans' political crusade against Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, whom House Republicans recently impeached. Rather than passing meaningful anti-crime measures such as allowing Philadelphia and other cities to adopt gun safety measures stronger than those in state law, the Republicans have found it much easier to simply target Krasner — who is likely to remain in office because Republicans probably won't muster the two-thirds majority needed to convict him in the Senate.
Because of that stunt, Gov. Tom Wolf had little choice but to veto the bill because the state constitution requires the Legislature to pass bills dealing only with a single subject.
This legislative train wreck illustrates why the single-purpose rule is a good idea. The newly elected Legislature should pass the bicycle-safety bill on its own merits.
