Requires a lighted lamp on the front and rear of every bicycle and a red reflector securely attached to the rear in a size and type as approved by the commissioner.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2970
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 26, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sen. MAYER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Transportation
AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to requiring a
lightened lamp on the front and rear of every bicycle and a red
reflector on the rear
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 1236 of the vehicle and traffic law, subdivision
2 (a) as amended by chapter 16 of the laws of 2009 and subdivisions (d)
3 and (e) as added by chapter 887 of the laws of 1976, is amended to read
4 as follows:
5 § 1236. Lamps and other equipment on bicycles. (a) Every bicycle when
6 in use during the period from one-half hour after sunset to one-half
7 hour before sunrise shall [be equipped with a] display one lighted lamp
8 on the front [which] and one on the rear of such bicycle. The lamp on
9 the front shall emit a white light visible during hours of darkness from
10 a distance of at least five hundred feet to the front and [with a red or
11 amber light] the lamp on the rear shall be visible to the rear for three
12 hundred feet. Effective July first, nineteen hundred seventy-six, at
13 least one of these lights shall be visible for two hundred feet from
14 each side.
15 (b) No person shall operate a bicycle unless it is equipped with a
16 bell or other device capable of giving a signal audible for a distance
17 of at least one hundred feet, except that a bicycle shall not be
18 equipped with nor shall any person use upon a bicycle any siren or whis-
19 tle.
20 (c) Every bicycle shall be equipped with a brake which will enable the
21 operator to make the braked wheels skid on dry, level, clean pavement.
22 (d) Every new bicycle shall be equipped with reflective tires or,
23 alternately, a reflex reflector mounted on the spokes of each wheel,
24 said tires and reflectors to be of types approved by the commissioner.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04672-01-3
S. 2970 2
1 The reflex reflector mounted on the front wheel shall be colorless or
2 amber, and the reflex reflector mounted on the rear wheel shall be
3 colorless or red.
4 (e) Every bicycle when in use during the period from one-half hour
5 after sunset to one-half hour before sunrise shall be equipped with
6 reflective devices or material meeting the standards established by
7 rules and regulations promulgated by the commissioner; provided, howev-
8 er, that such standards shall not be inconsistent with or otherwise
9 conflict with the requirements of subdivisions (a) and (d) of this
10 section.
11 (f) In addition to the provisions set forth in subdivision (a) of this
12 section, every bicycle shall have at least one adequate red reflector
13 securely attached to the rear. Such reflector may be affixed to the rear
14 lamp. No reflector shall be deemed adequate within the meaning of this
15 subdivision unless it is of a size and type approved by the commission-
16 er. The provisions of this subdivision with respect to reflectors shall
17 be applicable, both day and night, whenever the bicycle is on a public
18 highway.
19 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
20 have become a law.