Manitoba drivers could soon face new rules for driving near snowplows, tow trucks and cyclists.
A bill put before the legislature Monday would require motorists to keep at least 30 metres behind a snowplow or other winter maintenance vehicles while following it on lower-speed roads. On roads with a speed limit of more than 80 kilometres an hour, the minimum distance would be 100 metres.
The proposed law would also forbid drivers from passing a snowplow if the driver’s view of the road ahead is obscured by blowing snow or ice crystals, and would ban drivers from entering an intersection where there is a snowplow if doing so would interfere with operations.
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The NDP government said the bill would make the rules more specific than the current Highway Traffic Act, which uses general terms such as “proceed with caution.”
“We’re working to clarify what is a safe distance,” Transportation Minister Lisa Naylor said.
“And there’s a little bit more … in terms of having people recognize (that) it’s important to give a wide berth to snow-removal equipment.”
Similarly, the bill would require drivers to maintain a distance of at least one metre while passing cyclists. The current law mentions only an unspecified “safe distance.” The one-metre rule is already in place in some provinces such as Ontario.
Bike Winnipeg, an advocacy group for cyclists, said Manitoba should go further and institute a minimum distance of 1.5 metres on faster roads, as British Columbia recently did for roads with speed limits above 50 kilometres an hour.
“I certainly wouldn’t want to be passed a metre away by someone in an 80-kilometre-an-hour vehicle,” Mark Cohoe, the group’s executive director, said.
“The safe envelope for someone operating a bike needs to be a bit wider.”
Cohoe is hoping the government is open to changing the bill when it goes before public hearings later this year.
The bill would also allow tow truck operators to place traffic control devices on the road in order to protect themselves and motorists they are helping. Many do so already but the bill would protect that practice in law, Naylor said
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