Sine die is not usually a day for rallies for or against legislation. Those events generally take place in February or March. But the state's bicyclists still have a bill they've been pushing for years in the balance today -- one that would require motorists to keep a 3-foot buffer between their vehicles and bicyclists.
It's a simple bill that many other states have adopted, but nothing concerning the relations between bicyclists and motor vehicles is simple. The bill crept out of a House committee just Friday, and it has to race through both houses to become law by midnight.
The bicyclists' feeling about this bill we intensified by a recent fatal crash involving a bicyclist in Baltimore County, Lawrence Bensky, 43, of Owings Mills. They're expected to arrive -- by bicycle -- just about now for a noon rally. His widow, Tamara, is expected to attend. The Baltimore Bicycle Club and the University of Maryland School of Law Cycling Club are among the rally organizers.