BICYCLING & THE LAW - YOUR RIGHTS AS A CYCLIST
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The day after Christmas I was on a group ride with about 12 cyclists. We were on a two laned back road where there are few cars. The road had a small bike lane wide enough to fit one cyclist. At the time, we were riding two abreast doing a double pace-line. The left side pace-line was in the road because the bike lane was only wide enough to fit the right side of our pace-line safely. Furthermore there was some debris and bushes growing into the bike lane. So for our safety we were not all riding in the bike lane.
Crushing a long about 23 mph in our double pace-line a sheriff goes by us pulls in front of us and slams on his breaks making us almost crash into the back of his cop car. He gets out of his car with an attitude and proceeds to lecture us while threatening to give us all a ticket for riding two abreast and not staying within the bike lane. Being the day after Christmas you would think the sheriff would have been in better spirits and have better things to do than harass a few cyclists that were not doing any harm. It is not like we were riding on a busy street in the middle of traffic. We were minding our own business on a back country road with very little traffic.
As the sheriff continued to lecture and threaten us, a few of the cyclist in the group got a little fired up and began to challenge the sheriff with what the bicycling law states about riding two abreast. We went back and forth with the sheriff about our rights as cyclists debating with him the we could ride two abreast. He finally gave us a warning and we went about our group ride.
During the ride I began to think about what a jerk this sheriff was and how poorly he handled the situation. There are far more important things the sheriff could have been doing with his time instead of harassing a group of cyclist enjoying the outdoors. Santa Clause probably was not good to the sheriff so the sheriff was a little grumpy.
When I got home I decide to do a little research about what our rights in this situation really were. I stumbled upon a book called Bicycling and the Law: Your Rights as a Cyclist
On page 63 section 2-16 of Bicycling and the Law: Your Rights as a Cyclist
The Uniform Vehicle Code Section 11-1206. Riding two abreast states.
Persons riding bicycles upon a roadway shall not ride more than two abreast except on paths our parts of roadways set aside for exclusive use of bicycles. Persons riding two abreast shall not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic and, on a laned roadway, shall ride within a single lane.
The book goes on to state that how we were riding was within the law as our rights as cyclists. Next time in the situation I will tell the sherrif to go look up The Unform Vehicle Code Section 11-1206.
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April 12th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
We used to ride downtown in city traffic every day. At first , we tried keeping to the right side of the street. Impossible, what with trash, drains, parked cars, and so on. We changed our strategy to riding side by side , far apart enough to take up one lane. Cars seemed to see us and respect our right to be there. In those days, no driver ever gave us any grief; in fact, we fetl respected by the motorists in the city. We always obeyed all the traffic laws and were careful, but never had a problem. However, I don’t know if I’d ride side by side in city traffic these days. Things are a lot different now than they were then.
But bike lanes in most places are full of trash, broken glass, all sorts of debris as well as brush growing out into them; not safe for cycling.