The British Columbia Motor Vehicle Act (MVA) is the complete legislation containing the actual laws governing road use in BC.
While amended at various points, the MVA has remained largely unchanged since it was written in 1957, a time when our understanding (and realities) of transportation demand, costs and impacts were very different than they are today.
Transportation goals and roles have changed drastically in the past six decades, and so have our assumed rights and responsibilities. Yet, from a legislative perspective, we’re frozen in time.
In 2016, the BC Cycling Coalition and partner groups completed a review of the MVA, and submitted a list of proposed improvements reflecting the best practices of progressive jurisdictions to BC Government officials.
The purpose of the proposed improvements are to:
Provide greater clarity to all road users on the fundamental differences between bicycles and motor vehicles
Improve the safety of cyclists and other road users
Reduce conflicts among cyclists, pedestrians and motorists
Provide better legal protection to cyclists and pedestrians in the event of collisions with motor vehicles
Enable police to further focus their enforcement efforts efficiently on infractions that are the most likely to result in collisions, injuries and fatalities
Conform with the curricula of bicycle safety courses being taught by cycling organizations across the province
Proposed changes include:
Changing of name of the Act to acknowledge all modes, not just motor vehicles
Specify minimum passing distance of 1.5m
Legal definitions of bicycle lanes and separated cycling facilities
Legalization of bicycle specific signals
Allowing riding two abreast
Removal or updated as near to the right clause
Enabling cities to create blanket speed limits less than 50 km/h
A default speed limit of 30 km/h on local streets
Increasing the penalty for dooring from $81 to $368 plus 3 demerit points
More information on the proposed changes here.
