Lawmakers in Lansing want to make Michigan roads safer.
Republican Senator Margaret O’Brien, R-Portage, hopes to wrap up bills to make bicyclists safer on the roads soon. Legislation is working its way through the Legislature that would require vehicles give bicyclists three feet of room when they pass.
“Each week I open the news and it seems like another bicyclist has been hit by a motorist,” she said.
O’Brien said she thinks the bill will head to the governor’s desk soon. So now she wants to focus on distracted driving. O’Brien introduced legislation back in November that would increase penalties for distracted driving.
Another bill, sponsored by Senator David Knezek, D-Dearborn Heights, and co-sponsored by O’Brien, would update the law to specify that drivers cannot use internet-based devices like computers and tablets while driving. Texting or reading on your cell phone while driving is already banned.
“So that type of technology that we have, our laws just haven’t been updated for,” O’Brien said. “So I’m gonna work to learn the concerns and hopefully we can make amendments that address it and make it across the finish line.”
This post has been updated to clarify that reading and texting on a cell phone while driving (not talking) is against the law.
