You're descending into Hope on Highway 3. A truck passes at 110 km/h, close enough to feel. Whether that pass is safe, legal, or enforceable depends on BC's Motor Vehicle Act (MVA), a law written mostly with cars in mind.
That law is being rewritten. The province amended it in 2024 to require a minimum passing distance, and consultations on the next round of changes are underway now. Two BC cycling organizations, HUB Cycling and the BC Cycling Coalition, have put forward 25 recommendations for what those changes should be. Their highest-priority recommendations are strong: 30 km/h default limits on neighbourhood streets, no right turns on red, and a three-second following distance behind people on bikes.
We read all 25 with a different rider in mind. Not the commuter on Commercial Drive, but the person three days into a loaded tour, on a rural highway, crossing a rail corridor, rolling into a town they've never seen. Cycle tourists spend long days on roads where there are no protected bike lanes, only the choices made by the people driving around them. Some of the recommendations that matter most for that rider sit well down the urban priority list.
Here are our five.
Space at railway crossings#
Rail crossings can be hazardous for cyclists, especially when tracks cross the road at a shallow angle. Touring riders often need to move across the lane to line up a safer crossing, and doing that with a vehicle close behind can be one of the most stressful moments on a ride. At one rail crossing in Tennessee, redesigning the approach so cyclists crossed the rails at a steeper angle reduced observed single-bike crashes by 98 percent. Recommendation 23 would require drivers to give cyclists room to cross railway tracks and cattle guards safely.
Side-by-side riding#
Pairs and groups tour together, yet current law effectively requires single file. That makes nearly every touring group technically offside and gives impatient drivers a pretext. Recommendation 17 would make riding two abreast legal where it's safe.
Dangerous driving by large vehicles#
In the city, the answer to traffic danger is protected infrastructure. On a rural highway there usually isn't any. Safety depends on whether the driver of the truck gives you room. Recommendation 13 would lower the threshold for licence suspension, raise fines for the largest vehicles, and make retraining routine after repeat offences.
Stop signs as yields#
On a multi-day ride you stop at a lot of empty rural intersections. The "Idaho stop" lets cyclists treat a stop sign as a yield: slow, look, proceed if clear. Idaho's cyclist injuries dropped 14.5 percent in the year after the law took effect, and HUB Cycling already advocates for it here. Recommendation 11 would bring it to BC.
Safer highway speeds#
The speed gap between a loaded bike and highway traffic is largest exactly where cycle tourists ride. Recommendation 10 would expand GPS-aware speed limiters: the vehicle knows the local speed limit and resists being driven far past it. The European Union already requires them in new vehicles.
The full list, with our take on all 25, is in the appendix at the bottom of this page.
None of this replaces the urban priorities. It's the same reform, seen from a loaded bike on an unfamiliar road.
Have your say#
The BC Cycling Coalition (BCCC) is surveying riders to shape what goes to the province, and they'll be sharing the results with government. You need to be a BCCC member to take the survey; joining is free and takes a minute. Take the survey. They especially need to hear from people who ride outside the cities.
— Heather
Appendix: all 25 recommendations, through a cycle tourist's lens#
The full list of HUB Cycling and the BC Cycling Coalition's 2024 Motor Vehicle Act reform recommendations, presented in their original order, with our take on what each one means for people touring BC by bike.
| # | Recommendation | Our take |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Default 30 km/h limit on local streets without centre lines | Moderate. Every tour passes through towns, and slower streets make unfamiliar ones gentler. Mostly a residential-street change. |
| 2 | No right turns on red for motor vehicles | Moderate-high. Removes a common conflict point at the intersections you meet entering and leaving town. |
| 3 | Welcome wheelchairs and mobility scooters on cycling routes | Low for touring specifically, though it makes shared paths more welcoming for everyone. |
| 4 | Allow small children on sidewalks at walking speed | Minimal for touring. Matters for families, not multi-day trips. |
| 5 | Three-second following distance behind vulnerable road users | High. Being followed too closely by fast traffic is a familiar experience on rural highways. An enforceable buffer matters most where there is no bike lane to retreat to. |
| 6 | Fines for blocking bike lanes, with automated enforcement | Moderate. Mostly protects urban bike lanes. Relevant when your route crosses a city. |
| 7 | Let cyclists use the pedestrian head-start signal at intersections | Moderate. Simpler intersections help riders who don't know them. |
| 8 | Remove the mandatory adult helmet law | Mainly affects spontaneous and urban visitor cycling, especially bike share. Touring riders generally bring helmets, so the impact on multi-day trips is small. |
| 9 | Make "elephant's feet" crossings a provincial standard | Low. A consistency fix with a small benefit at town crossings. |
| 10 | Expand GPS-aware speed limiters | High. The speed gap between bikes and traffic is biggest on the rural highways where tours happen. Anything that brings vehicle speeds down there cuts the worst risk. |
| 11 | Stop sign as yield for cyclists (the Idaho stop) | High. Touring means hundreds of rural stop signs. Slowing and proceeding when it's clearly empty beats coming to a complete stop at every one. HUB Cycling already advocates for this. |
| 12 | Allow passing on the right on shoulders and bikeways | Low. A technical legal fix, rarely an issue on touring routes. |
| 13 | Stronger penalties and retraining for dangerous driving, higher fines for the largest vehicles | High. On a rural highway there is no protected lane, just the driver's choices. Heavy vehicles pose one of the greatest risks to touring cyclists on rural highways. |
| 14 | Allow bicycles in rightmost bus lanes | Low. Urban only. |
| 15 | Modernize cyclist signalling rules | Low. A clarification, though a welcome one on a loaded bike when taking a hand off the bars is unsafe. |
| 16 | Clarify right-of-way at roundabouts and traffic circles | High. Roundabouts are increasingly common in resort towns, and visitors often aren't sure who yields to whom. Clear rules help everyone. |
| 17 | Allow side-by-side riding where safe | High. Pairs and groups tour together, and the single-file rule makes that technically illegal, which some drivers treat as an invitation. |
| 18 | Require side guards on heavy trucks | High. Side guards reduce the risk of cyclists being pulled beneath turning trucks. Particularly relevant where touring cyclists and heavy vehicles share the same road. |
| 19 | Drivers must yield to a cyclist continuing through an intersection | High. Getting cut off by turning vehicles is a constant hazard when you're following a route through unfamiliar intersections. |
| 20 | Tighten safe passing to 1.5 m at speeds under 50 km/h | Moderate. Since 2024, drivers are required to give you 1.5 m at highway speeds but only 1 m in town. This would make the full 1.5 m the rule everywhere. |
| 21 | Clarify that cyclists ride as near to the right as is safe, not as far right as possible | High. Loaded bikes need room to avoid debris, grates, and rough shoulders. Legal clarity protects riders who are already doing the right thing. |
| 22 | No duty to pull right just because a driver honks | Moderate. A horn should not be able to legally push you into the gravel. |
| 23 | Drivers must give cyclists space to cross railway tracks and cattle guards | Very high. Touring riders sometimes need to move across the lane to line up a safer crossing. Having room to do that matters. Especially relevant on rural roads with rail crossings or cattle guards. |
| 24 | Rename the Act to the "Road Safety Act" | Symbolic. No practical effect on a ride. |
| 25 | Let cyclists proceed past the stop line to trigger a signal | Low, but real: plenty of signals never detect a bicycle. |
Sources: Modernizing the BC Motor Vehicle Act, HUB Cycling and BC Cycling Coalition (2024); rail crossing research, University of Tennessee; stop-as-yield fact sheet, NHTSA.