Roughly 100 cyclists rallied Monday at a press conference on the
Santa Barbara Courthouse steps to support “Kendra’s Law,” a new
bill meant to protect bike riders on roads without bike lanes.
Assemblyman Pedro Nava, who will pen the bill, explained to the
gathered cyclists that his law would require three feet of
clearance between automobiles and bicycles. He dubbed it Kendra’s
Law in memory of UCSB triathlete Kendra Chiota Payne, killed by a
truck hauling concrete while riding on Gibraltar Road this January.
Nava expressed confidence in the bill, saying legislators would be
fools to oppose it, but cautioned that crafting specifics of the
law could be tricky. For instance, due to the width of the truck
and the narrowness of the stretch of road where Payne was killed,
the maximum space possible between truck and bike was approximately
one foot. One of Payne’s former teammates urged Nava to ensure the
law doesn’t backfire by denying bicycle access to narrow roads.
