Bicycle/Pedestrian Safety

While Just Drive PA focuses on changing driver behavior, bicyclists and pedestrians can also take steps to enhance highway safety.

Motorists can find information on bicycle safety laws and tips on this fact sheet: Bicycle Laws, Safety Tips for Motorists.

Effective April 2, 2012, motorists must allow at least four feet between your vehicle and a bicycle for the vehicle to safely pass the bicycle, and motorists should pass at a careful and prudent reduced speed. When safe to do so, it is legal to cross the center double yellow line if necessary to provide the required four feet when passing a bicycle. Also, no turn by the driver of a motor vehicle shall interfere with a bicyclist proceeding straight on a roadway or shoulder.

Walk to School Month

National Walk to School Month is celebrated during October and Wednesday, Oct. 5 is Walk to School Day.

There are numerous organizations that provide communities with ideas for encouraging walking and bicyling to school, as well as increasing safety for students who walk or bike.

Consider visiting the Pennsylvania Safe Routes to School website for more information on how you can get involved. Also check out how some communities have established a walking school bus.

Bicycle Safety Tips

• Wear light-colored, reflective clothing so you can be seen.
• Consider wearing an approved helmet and other protective gear.
• Children under 12 years of age must wear an approved safety helmet.
• Ride on the right side of the road.
• Signal your intentions in advance.
• Consider attending training to obtain the skills necessary to ride safely on the road.

Yield to Pedestrian Channelizing Devices

To enhance pedestrian safety at intersections, PennDOT offers free Yield to Pedestrian Channelizing Devices to municipalities. The signs should be deployed to intersections with a documented pedestrian crash history or a location where pedestrians have trouble crossing because motorists fail to yield.

The signs are designed to remind motorists of Pennsylvania law requiring the operator of a vehicle to yield the right of way to a pedestrian crossing a roadway within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection where there are no traffic controls or traffic controls are not in operation. Violators of the law are subject to a $50 fine.

PennDOT has distributed more than 6,800 devices since 2001, while pedestrian crashes have fallen by 25 percent over that time.

Pedestrian Safety Tips

• Wear light-colored, reflective clothing so you can be seen.
• Walk against traffic.
• Make eye contact with motorists before crossing the street.
• Be aware of your surroundings.