College Station City Council members will discuss Thursday, Oct. 8, whether the city should require drivers to give bicyclists, pedestrians and other exposed road users a minimum amount of room when passing.
The safe passing item is on the council's workshop agenda for direction only, so no ordinance will be adopted that night. Council members had asked staff to research the idea and to get a recommendation from the Active Transportation Advisory Board first.
A split advisory board
That board took up the question at its Sept. 14 meeting. According to the staff report, members gave mixed feedback: some favored creating an ordinance, while others raised concerns about whether it could be enforced.
Staff has been skeptical. After researching the topic and presenting it to the board on Nov. 10, 2025, staff consulted other city departments and concluded an ordinance would be hard to carry out, both legally and in terms of payoff. The report says Texas law would cap a violation at a Class C misdemeanor, and that proving a driver passed too closely would be difficult.
At that time staff advised against an ordinance and suggested folding the goal into a Share the Road education campaign, which the city's new Active Transportation Master Plan already calls for.
The report also acknowledges that, even if enforcement is hard, an ordinance would support the city's goal of becoming more bicycle-friendly.
What a rule could look like
A summary attached to the item sketches one version:
