Hello fellow Senators my name is Ashley Rice and for those who do not know me I am one of the Senators from California. My permanent residence is in the wonderful and innovative city of San Francisco and as many of you know this city is known for its large and fearless bike culture.  Let me ask you a question.  How many of you here have ever ridden a bike, don’t be shy Senator please raise your hands.  As I suspected most of you have ridden a bike and I’m sure a lot of you have experienced firsthand the need for change of the classification of bikes.

Just to refresh your memories today we are presenting the bills that passed in our committees.  In my committee the committee of housing, transportation, and community development we passed the bill “Reclassification of Bicycles.”  If you do not already know right now bikes are classified as motor vehicles and therefore cyclists are required to follow all the rules of the road and if they break a law such as running a stop sign they are subject to the same fine that a motor vehicle driver would be subject to if they committed the same traffic violation.

In our committee we proposed that bicycles should no longer be considered motor vehicles but their own separate classification of transportation.  They should not be considered pedestrian but they should also not be classified as motor vehicles.  We believe that since bikes travel at a significantly slower speed approximately 10 MPH and because of this they cannot cause as much damage to pedestrians or property as cars can traveling just 10 MPH faster.

Stating this in our proposed bill we do not believe that bikes should not have to follow the rules of the road we just believe that bikes should have laws tailored just to them and fines or jail time accompanying the specific crime.  We understand that this could be costly to implement including the increased number of police force that is needed to regulate the newly improved bike law but we believe that bikers especially in urban cities should be protected and not subject to the same punishments as drivers of cars.  Many cyclists do not believe they need to fully stop at stop signs and as law makers we believe that not stopping at a stop sign or red lights could be potentially dangerous and cause accidents involving cars.  But with this being said there should be exceptions to the rules.  We believe that there is no need for a cyclist to come to a complete stop at a stop sign when there are no other cars or pedestrians around.  This means if the cyclists deems it safe to cross without stopping we believe that should be their right and they should not be forced to make an unnecessary stop.

Bikes are not cars but they can still cause significant damage to property or even death to pedestrians if they are not used correctly.  We believe that with the implantation of this law cyclists will be happier with the notion of not having to do things that seem unnecessary and trivial. Senators I urge you to vote yes to implement this law to create better and more harmonious roads all over the country.