What's happening
This bill requires drivers to yield to vehicles merging or avoiding obstacles in adjacent lanes and prohibits speeding up during merges.
Why it matters
Enhances road safety by clarifying that drivers already in a lane must yield to vehicles signaling to merge, reducing the risk of collisions during lane changes.
Prevents aggressive driving behaviors, such as speeding up to block merging vehicles, by explicitly prohibiting acceleration until the merge is complete, promoting smoother traffic flow.
Extends right-of-way requirements to situations where vehicles need to avoid obstacles, ensuring that drivers can safely maneuver around road hazards without being cut off or endangered by adjacent traffic.
May lead to changes in driver education, law enforcement practices, and public awareness campaigns, as the new provisions require both knowledge and enforcement to be effective.
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Who cares
Drivers changing lanes
The bill would require drivers on roads with two or more marked lanes traveling in the same direction to yield to vehicles appropriately signaling a merge right or left.
Drivers in adjacent lanes
They would have to yield to signaling vehicles merging into their lane and could not increase speed until the merge is complete.
Drivers encountering blocked lanes
The bill would require drivers on roadways with one or more lanes blocked by an obstacle to yield to vehicles seeking to avoid it.
Headline styles
Yield to Merging Cars
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to transportation
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
9066
IN ASSEMBLY
January 18, 2018
Introduced by M. of A. PERRY -- read once and referred to the Committee on Transportation
AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to right of way for vehicles traveling in adjacent lanes
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as "the yield to the driver ahead act".
§ 2. The vehicle and traffic law is amended by adding a new section 1147 to read as follows:
§ 1147. Vehicle merging into an adjacent lane. (a) The driver of a vehicle on any roadway which has been divided into two or more clearly marked lanes for traffic to travel in the same direction shall yield the right of way to all vehicles which have given an appropriate signal of intention to merge right or left and shall not increase the speed of their vehicle until such merge has been completed.
(b) The driver of a vehicle on any roadway where an obstacle has blocked one or more lanes shall yield the right of way to all vehicles seeking to avoid such obstacle.
§ 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it shall have become a law; provided that any rules and regulations necessary to implement the provisions of this act on its effective date are authorized and directed to be promulgated and shall become effective on such date.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13332-03-7
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.