Washington

Washington – legislation passed in 2019 (2019 ranking: 3 – TOP 5!)

Summary: Washington has a passing law that defines the safe passing distance as “at least three feet.” Washington’s law gets a little more specific and requires reducing speed “relative to the speed of the individual.” Washington’s law also gets pretty specific concerning how to pass when there is insufficient distance available in the lane of travel – “When there is insufficient room to the left of the individual in the lane for traffic moving in the direction of travel to comply with (a)(ii)(A) of this subsection, before passing and until safely clear of the individual, move completely into the lane for traffic moving in the opposite direction when it is safe to do so…”

Washington often takes top honors (or close to it) in any cycling survey. Both Washington and its neighbor to the south, Oregon, have done a good job building a cycling culture that provides cyclists with infrastructures most of us would love. The annual Seattle to Portland bike ride put on by the Cascade Bicycle Club is unbelievably well done. Like RAGBRAI in Iowa, it’s a ride that should be on every cyclist’s bucket list. Both rides are in July, so you could actually do both in the same year. We did.

For details, search with the following keywords: “Washington State Section 46.61.110.”

From FindLaw.com:

https://codes.findlaw.com/wa/title-46-motor-vehicles/wa-rev-code-46-61-110.html

From Justia.com:

https://law.justia.com/codes/washington/2021/title-46/chapter-46-61/section-46-61-110/

The League of American Bicyclists - Bicycle Friendly State Report Card:

https://bikeleague.org/sites/default/files/BFS_Report_Card_2022_Washington.pdf

Groups to check out: