Do you drive a motor vehicle in New York State?  Have you ever wondered:

• How to safely negotiate bike lanes while driving?
• How to pass a bike on a rural road with a double-yellow line and oncoming traffic?
• What the “Due Care” law actually means?

Well, if you’re curious, you won’t find the answers in New York State’s Driver’s Education Manual. In fact, the 100+ page document only devotes two pages to “Sharing the Road” with bicyclists — a whopping 544 words, and 66 percent of those words are devoted to how bicyclists are supposed to act on the road, not drivers.

Contrast that with the fact that in 2012, over 60 percent of vehicle crashes with bicyclists in New York State were attributed to unsafe motorist behavior, and that pedestrians were involved in 25 percent of fatal motor vehicle crashes in the same year, more than twice the national average (11 percent). And while New York State does require a five-hour pre-licensing course and test before a new driver gets a license, the course curriculum and test are not required to address how vehicles can better navigate roads that are increasingly populated by vulnerable road users.

This week, the NYS Senate Transportation Committee moved a bill that would make sure drivers learn how to properly share the road. If passed, the bill would require that the pre-licensing test include at least one question on bicycle and pedestrian safety. It would also require the pre-licensing curriculum to include information on:

• Safely passing cyclists
• Special considerations while driving in urban areas
• Bicycle lanes and other roadway safety designs for pedestrians and cyclists
• How to navigate an intersection with pedestrians and cyclists
• Exiting a vehicle without endangering pedestrians and cyclists
• The requirement that drivers exercise due care to avoid collision with a bicyclist or pedestrian

This bill has been kicking around Albany since 2010 without ever getting the legs to make it over the finish line. But times are changing. As the bill memo states, “there has been a dramatic increase in the number of bicycles on the road; some estimates put the number of riders at more than 200,000 daily.” And on top of that, New York has the dubious distinction of having the highest percentage of pedestrian fatalities of any state.

Unfortunately, not everyone is keeping pace with the changing dynamics on our roads: As a staffer for a Democratic assembly member told TSTC this week, “drivers education is about drivers, not pedestrians and bicyclists. There are only 20 questions on the test, they need to be devoted to drivers.”