
If you’ve been keeping an eye on road safety legislation in Maryland, you might have noticed something big happening this year. According to SafeRoadsMD Board member John Becker, “it feels like a high watermark for the Maryland General Assembly in terms of road safety bills.” And he’s not wrong—there’s a whole wave of legislation covering everything from pedestrian safety to stricter penalties for reckless driving.
Tracking all of these bills? Not an easy task. In a recent virtual call with SafeRoadsMD Chair John Seng, John Becker admitted, “if there’s a way to do that [automate it], I have no freaking clue.” Instead, he’s been going old school—scraping through bills manually, spreadsheet in hand, making sense of the chaos. It’s tedious, but worth it: “I chopped it down a little bit to make it just... you know, the categories that I thought were important.”

So, what’s actually in these bills? Everything from pedestrian and bicycle safety to noise abatement, commercial vehicle regulations, and even protection for first responders and construction workers. “Even the asphalt manufacturers are supporting a bill this year,” Becker points out, highlighting just how widespread the push for better road safety has become. One particularly strong measure, Senate Bill 0044, targets drivers who leave the scene of an accident—ensuring they face real consequences.
Of course, getting all of this through the legislative process is another battle. “Sometimes a bill is introduced just to introduce it,” Becker notes, but he sees promise in the momentum. The big question now: how will advocacy groups like the Maryland Coalition for Roadway Safety prioritize their efforts? Becker is already planning to “develop a little brief outline” for each bill, so the Board can decide where to focus their energy—whether that’s through testimony, advocacy, or behind-the-scenes lobbying.
On a more immediate note, Becker has a call lined up to discuss bicycle laws, particularly a proposal to allow bikes on sidewalks statewide. “I think that’s a great idea,” he says, but he also has concerns about narrow sidewalks in high-traffic areas like Rockville Pike. His goal? Find a way to balance pedestrian and cyclist safety. Maybe a compromise, like “bicycling is permitted subject to pedestrian use,” could be the key.
And let’s not forget the bigger picture: Maryland’s overall traffic fatalities dropped last year. “Roughly a 70-fatality drop,” Seng estimates, translating to a 10-15% decline. That’s progress—but there’s still a long way to go. The road safety community knows this is just “the beginning of the beginning,” and they’re not slowing down now.
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