The Albany County Legislature passed a new law last month that requires drivers to give 3 feet of space when they pass or approach bicyclists, pedestrians, road workers and other vulnerable road users.
Albany Bicycle Coalition and our partners, Walkable Albany and Capital Streets, first called for this county law in November 2024 at our annual event commemorating the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. Each year at this event we read the names of Albany County pedestrians and bicyclists that have needlessly lost their lives in traffic crashes. County legislators Susan Laurilliard and Sam Fein joined us at the event and committed to bringing the 3-foot safe passing bill to the county legislature.
The law is necessary because our county has seen an alarming increase in the number of vulnerable road users killed and seriously injured. The Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research reports crash statistics for the State of New York and all its jurisdictions. In the seven years before COVID, from 2013 to 2019, the county averaged 40 pedestrians and bicyclists killed and seriously injured annually. In the three years since 2021, that average jumped 50%, from 40 to 60 vulnerable persons killed or seriously injured each year.
This is a startling increase in the number of people in Albany County who have needlessly died or had their lives, their livelihoods and those of their families violently disrupted.
It is important to note that the law is meant to be educational. We don’t expect police to be measuring the distance from cars to pedestrians with yardsticks. It is doubtful anyone will be charged unless they actually hit a vulnerable road user. We hope to see signage, as is found in all the states surrounding New York, that remind drivers to keep a safe distance from the bodies of vulnerable people that they are blasting by in projectiles that increasingly weigh two or more tons.
Drivers need reminding because too many are impaired, distracted by cell phones and infotainment systems or overly concerned about getting somewhere quickly. Drivers need reminding because billions are spent each year telling them that driving should be an experience of luxury and performance and not an activity to be done with care.
The long term goal is to have New York State enact a defined safe passing law. The New York Bicycling Coalition website reports 40 states have such laws. New York is surrounded by states requiring drivers to give vulnerable people three or even four feet when passing. Bills in New York have been passed by the senate, but not by the assembly.
If enough counties pass these laws, the state legislature will need to pass a statewide law. A few weeks after Albany county passed its law, Cortland county became the fifth county to pass this law. We encourage our friends in neighboring Schenectady, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Greene counties to join in this growing effort.
We don’t pretend that this law will end all the mayhem on our roadways, but it is one more step toward what is called Vision Zero, the goal of eliminating all deaths and serious injuries on our roadways. At our last Day of Remembrance for Albany County crash victims we set a goal of having all Albany county cities, villages and towns adopt a Vision Zero Resolution like that put forward by the Capital Region Transportation Council. The mayhem on our roadways is preventable.
Communities near and far have been committing to this goal and deploying policies and practices that are making a difference. Through October of 2025 Albany City’s combination of lower speeds, school zone speed cameras and speed humps in residential areas helped reduce personal injury crashes by 22% over 2024. The Vision Zero efforts of the City of Hoboken, New Jersey, a City of 60,000, have resulted in eight consecutive years without a road fatality. No one should die or be seriously injured while traveling on Albany county roads.
Please give at least three feet when you are passing vulnerable people on our roadways and please encourage your county, town, village and city leaders to join the Vision Zero effort to stop the mayhem on our roadways.
Ed Brennan is president of the Albany Bicycle Coalition.
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