Testimony: HB 337 – Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Memorial Act

WABA supports HB 337, the Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Memorial Act.

You can view this document in PDF form here.

HB 337: Vehicle Laws - Bike Lanes and Shoulders - Yielding Right-of-Way (Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Memorial Act)

House Environment and Transportation Committee
Washington Area Bicyclist Association – FAVORABLE

February 22, 2024

Chair Korman and Committee Members,

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) supports HB 337, the Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Memorial Act.

WABA is an advocacy organization with 1,200 Maryland members, founded in 1972. We fight for a just and sustainable transportation system where walking, biking, and transit are the best ways to get around.

Sarah Debbink Langenkamp was crushed by a truck driver while legally cycling in a bike lane on River Road, Maryland State Road 190, in August 2022. The driver, Santos Reyes Martinez, pleaded guilty but received only token penalties for the highly negligent driving that took Sarah’s life.

Penalties serve as a deterrent and as a motivator for education and driver vigilance, but only when they are adequate. Current Maryland penalties for hitting a bicyclist in a bike lane are not adequate. HB 337 seeks to impose penalties proportionate to the severity of the violent harm inflicted by a driver who hits a bicyclist in a bike lane. HB 337 will provide the deterrence and motivation that is currently lacking.

Penalties alone, of course, are not sufficient. Eleven bicyclists were killed by drivers on Maryland roads in 2022, the year Sarah Langenkamp was killed. Fifteen bicyclists were killed on Maryland roads in 2023, an increase in four from the year before. Maryland pedestrian deaths increased from 130 in 2022 to 155 last year. To state that Maryland is making no progress towards meeting our Vision Zero commitment is an understatement. Our state’s goal is zero road deaths and serious injuries by 2030, yet Maryland road violence is getting worse. The impact on Maryland families including Sarah Langenkamp’s is devastating.

The Safe System approach calls for comprehensive improvements to eliminate traffic fatalities including safe road users, safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe roads, and post-crash care. WABA recognizes the role that safe infrastructure plays and works to win improved road design and engineering; expand the network of low-stress, protected bike lanes and trails; create safe pedestrian crossings; and encourage more equitable access to bicycling, via programs such as e-bike purchase rebates.

We appreciate that the State Highway Administration conducted a public safety walk and undertook a safety study for the stretch of MD 190 where Sarah Langenkamp was killed. However, that this response was reactive and so limited is disconcerting. The Administration and the General Assembly must provide the attention, resources, and funding needed to create safe transportation infrastructure – in accordance with the Complete State Roads initiative that WABA launched last fall and with WABA’s 2022 Equitable Bikeways Investment proposal – coupled with penalty reform, to draw some redemption from the roads deaths of 304 pedestrians and bicyclists, including Sarah Debbink Langenkamp, on Maryland’s roads in just the last two years.

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association urges a Favorable HB 337 committee report and House floor vote.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify on this legislation.

Seth Grimes, WABA Maryland organizer

seth.grimes@waba.org

More about Maryland Legislation

WABA develops and advocates for state legislation to make bicycling in Maryland safer and more accessible and for state funding to expand Maryland’s bicycle network, working directly with legislators and Maryland Dept. of Transportation (MDOT) leadership and as part of the Bike Maryland coalition. We also work on broader road-safety, transit, and environmental legislation and funding, typically as part of larger statewide coalitions. The annual Maryland legislative session runs from January to April, but our work developing legislation starts the preceding summer.

We’re thrilled that several bills we worked on or supported were enacted in 2024, directing an MDOT Vision Zero Coordinator and public review process; the Better Bus Service Act, allowing bus-lane enforcement cameras (with bikes allowed); authorizing stop-sign cameras near schools in Prince George's County; and the Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Memorial Act, addressing penalties for hitting a cyclist in a bike lane.

Our 2024 advocacy included unsuccessful efforts that we will likely pursue in future years. (It often takes years to pass a bill. ) These include a Great Maryland Trails Act, an E-bike Rebate and Voucher Program bill, and a bill addressing maintenance responsibility for sidewalks and bike paths along state roads. Another topic on our list for 2025 is contributory negligence, a prejudicial statute that says that if a crash victim is even only 1% at fault, then they are liable and may not recover (full) costs and damages from the party largely at fault.

More about Laws & Policy

WABA works with grassroots advocates at the local, county and state level to support laws and policies that make it easier and safer to walk, bike, and take transit. And we work to changes ones that make biking less safe, make it harder to build bike infrastructure, or that deprioritize the safety and convenience of people walking, biking, or taking transit.

In practice that means advocating for robust and transformative Vision Zero programs, enforceable Complete Streets policies, and funding for new infrastructure that supports biking, walking and transit.

Other regional legislative priorities include:

Reforming Contributory Negligence (passed in DC, in the works in Maryland and Virginia).
Getting rid of the Level of Service engineering standards in transportation decision-making.
Funding E-bike purchase rebates.

More about Advocacy

WABA fights for a region where biking, walking and transit are the best ways to get around.

We educate policymakers and organize grassroots advocates for to speak up for safer places to bike and walk; and for laws and policies that protect people who are walking and biking, reduce dangerous driving, and facilitate changes to the built environment.