Avoiding two-wheel tangles.

• Author: Frazzini, Kevin
• Position: TRENDS

No matter how you spin it, bicycle commuting is on the rise.

Between 2000 and 2012, the number of U.S. workers who traveled to work by bicycle increased by 60.8 percent, from about 488,000 to about 786,000, according to the Census Bureau. Although the total number of cycle commuters is still a fraction of the working population--there were roughly 140 million total workers during that same timeframe--the increase in bicycle commuting exceeded the percentage increase of all other travel modes during that 12-year period.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

With this growth in cycling for transportation, as well as recreation, lawmakers are increasing their efforts to improve safety and reduce bicyclist deaths and injuries--at least 743 cyclists were killed and an estimated 48,000 injured in motor vehicle crashes in 2013, according to the latest National Highway Traffic Safety Administration numbers.

One of those strategies is to enact so-called safe-passing laws to make the roadways safer for those on two wheels.

All states' traffic laws derive from the Uniform Vehicle Code, which says drivers must keep a "safe distance" from cyclists when passing in the same lane. But the lack of specific guidelines with regard to motor vehicles and bicycles has led to confusion. In 1973, Wisconsin became the first state to enact a law requiring motorists to maintain 3 feet of distance when passing a cyclist. Since then, at least 26 states and the District of Columbia have enacted 3-foot passing laws, and two states have gone further. Pennsylvania drivers must give bicyclists 4 feet of space when passing, and, as of last year, South Dakota drivers must give riders 3 feet of space when passing on roads with posted speed limits of 35 miles per hour or less and at least 6 feet on roads where the limit is greater than 35.

Alabama and Wyoming, both of which enacted safe-passing laws in 2015, allow exceptions to their 3-foot requirement. Virginia clarified its law to allow drivers to cross a double line in order to pass a bicyclist, pedestrian or other non-motorized road user.

Do the new laws make the roads safer for cyclists? Enforcement is a...