Provide requirements under the Nebraska Rules of the Road for motorists and electric personal assistive mobility device operators encountering certain animals being led, herded, or driven on or along highways
LB977 revises the Nebraska Rules of the Road to update how certain roadway users are defined and how motorists must behave around them. The bill expands and clarifies the definition of “vulnerable road user” to include pedestrians in a variety of settings, people operating bicycles, electric bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, wheelchairs, coasters/skates/toy vehicles, electric personal assistive mobility devices, and people riding animals, driving animal-drawn vehicles, leading or herding livestock, or operating farm implements on or along highways. It also reorganizes and harmonizes related traffic provisions by repealing and reissuing several sections of the statutes.
The bill requires drivers to exercise due care when approaching or passing vulnerable road users and, when possible, to move at least one lane away on roads with two or more lanes in the same direction. Where changing lanes is not reasonably possible, drivers must slow down, maintain a safe speed, and proceed cautiously. Separate provisions address motorists encountering livestock on highways, requiring caution, stopping for distress signals, and yielding the right-of-way. The bill also updates rules for electric personal assistive mobility devices, allowing their operation in certain travel areas while requiring operators to yield to vulnerable road users and pedestrians, sound an audible signal before passing, and face a fine or impoundment for repeated violations.
LB977 also strengthens and clarifies speed-related rules. It prohibits driving so slowly as to impede traffic, sets minimum speed expectations on freeways, and authorizes the Department of Transportation or local authorities to establish lower minimum speed limits where engineering and traffic studies show that slow speeds consistently disrupt traffic flow. The measure further prohibits vehicular animal and pedestrian traffic on freeways and restricts livestock travel on other roadways where minimum speeds of 20 miles per hour or more are posted, subject to signage requirements.
The overall sentiment around the bill appears strongly favorable and noncontroversial. It advanced unanimously in the Legislature, first 38-0 and then 49-0 on final reading, and was approved by the Governor. The lack of recorded committee testimony in the provided materials also suggests little visible opposition in the legislative record provided.
The main policy focus is roadway safety and harmonizing Nebraska traffic law to better protect people and animals using roads outside of standard motor vehicle traffic. The most notable point of potential contention, if any, would be the practical burden on motorists and local authorities—especially around lane changes, reduced speeds, and livestock-related travel—but no explicit opposition is reflected in the available discussion or voting history.
LB977 amends multiple sections of Nebraska traffic law, including provisions in the Nebraska Rules of the Road and related reissued statutes, to create clearer duties for motorists and electric personal assistive mobility device operators around vulnerable road users and livestock. It changes who qualifies as a vulnerable road user, adds passing and yielding requirements, updates minimum-speed and freeway restrictions, and repeals obsolete or duplicative statutory language. The bill affects drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, livestock handlers, farm operators, and users of electric personal assistive mobility devices, while giving state and local transportation authorities authority to set certain minimum speed limits.
The bill appears to have enjoyed broad bipartisan support and little to no opposition. It passed the Legislature unanimously on final reading, and the Governor signed it into law. With no committee transcript excerpts provided, the available record suggests the measure was viewed as a straightforward roadway-safety and statutory-clarification bill rather than a contentious policy change.
No major contention is reflected in the provided record. The only likely areas of debate would be the new obligations on motorists to slow down or change lanes around vulnerable road users, the restrictions on livestock travel on certain roadways, and the new rules and penalties for electric personal assistive mobility device operators. However, the unanimous votes and absence of recorded committee opposition indicate these issues did not generate significant resistance in the legislative process.