LINCOLN- Nebraska lawmakers are set to update the state’s rules of the road — and levy harsher penalties on the drivers who break them — under a proposed law moving through the Legislature. Lawmakers on Thursday gave first-round approval to a controversial package of proposals (Legislative Bill 530) that would change several aspects of Nebraska’s criminal justice structure.

The bill faces fierce opposition from Democrats in the formally nonpartisan Legislature, but one set of proposals included in the bill has avoided such pushback: new rules meant to help protect pedestrians, cyclists, first responders, and construction workers, among others, along Nebraska’s roadways.

Introduced by Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, the proposed changes would create a category of people in state law known as “vulnerable road users,” a class that includes road construction and utility workers and first responders, and pedestrians, skaters and wheelchair users when they’re in a crosswalk or on the shoulder of a road. The new law would require motorists to, when possible, change lanes when approaching or passing any vulnerable road user.

For the full article click HERE