Engineering Commons^™

Driver Response And Safety Effect Of Three-Foot Bicycle Passing Laws, Nelida Andreina Herrera

LSU Master's Theses

The long and tragic history of vehicle-bicycle crashes in the United States has increasingly led to calls for legislative action to provide greater protections for bicyclists on the nation’s roadways. Among the most common of these actions are the three-foot passing laws. Recent history suggests that these laws may contribute to reducing the number of vehicular/bicycle-related collisions as well as their accompanying deaths and injuries, but few, if any, studies have shown how they substantively affect driver behavior. This thesis builds upon the results of recent research quantifying the effects of the three-foot passing laws by comparing key behavioral aspects …