Bicycles on the road & why reading the actual law is always wise

My state has a 3 foot law regarding bicycles. Got into it a bit yesterday with a few friends who ride bicycles on the road, and were attempting to lecture me about their "right" to ride anywhere on the road, block traffic, bla bla bla.

Went and pulled up the actual law. My oh my, not at all what they thought it was. Oh, there's a 3 foot requirement for passing...UNLESS. And what an unless it is.

The bicycle, EPAMD, or motor scooter rider fails to operate the vehicle in conformance with § 21-1205(a) of this subtitle ("Riding to right side of roadway") or § 21-1205.1(b) of this subtitle ("Roadway with bike lane or shoulder paved to smooth surface") A passing clearance of less than 3 feet is caused solely by the bicycle, EPAMD, or motor scooter rider failing to maintain a steady course; or The highway on which the vehicle is being driven is not wide enough to lawfully pass the bicycle, EPAMD, or motor scooter at a distance of at least 3 feet.

There's other fun stuff in the actual law regarding riding a bicycle, like the legal requirement to never raise up out of the seat, ever.

I've printed a copy of the actual law for my obnoxiously self-ritious bicycle riding friends to read. Conversations during lunch should become interesting.

Think I'll also keep a copy of this in my glovebox. Kinda like I used to keep a copy of the law on my bike regarding windshield height requirements. Way back when, my bike with the cut down windshield was perfectly legal, just many cops didn't know it.

Bad formatting. Can't read (Though I am interested, can you re-post?).

But I will say that a law prohibiting raising from the seat is a stupid law. It exhibits a fundamental lack of understanding of both bicycle riding and physics.

foxtrapper wrote: (i) The bicycle, EPAMD, or motor scooter rider fails to operate the vehicle in conformance with § 21-1205(a) of this subtitle ("Riding to right side of roadway") or § 21-1205.1(b) of this subtitle ("Roadway with bike lane or shoulder paved to smooth surface"); (ii) A passing clearance of less than 3 feet is caused solely by the bicycle, EPAMD, or motor scooter rider failing to maintain a steady course; or (iii) The highway on which the vehicle is being driven is not wide enough to lawfully pass the bicycle, EPAMD, or motor scooter at a distance of at least 3 feet.

Got it. Thanks.

foxtrapper wrote: My state has a 3 foot law regarding bicycles. Got into it a bit yesterday with a few friends who ride bicycles on the road, and were attempting to lecture me about their "right" to ride anywhere on the road, block traffic, bla bla

Those are the kind of berkwads that irritate the crap out of me.

I've had them cross a lane, on a two lane road, to try and stop a legal pass. Unfortunately I was running about 60, towing a 20' enclosed trailer. Instead of the 12' of space he would have had, he had less than 2'. The bow wave coming off the trailer blew him all the way back across the lane and down into a ditch.

I would rather share the road with anyone but the spandex bike crowd. They are unpredictable to put it mildly.

That sums it right there.

When in a vehicle, know your size and be predictable.

Too many cyclists try to act like they are semi-trucks. I just try to think of myself as a faster moving pedestrian.

Thanks moparman. For the life of me, I can't get it to fix the formatting in my post. It only wants to make it worse.

As a spandex wearing road warrior and regular city driver, I can assure you that self-righteous twats come in both flavors. Up to you to not be a twat, whatever you're movin' on down the road.

OK, I have to ask. What the heck is an EPAMD?

Electric Personal Assist Mobility Device. Can mean anything from a Segway to an electric wheel chair.

In my state, it means a Segway or like item. Two non-tandem wheels, self balancing, electric, maximum speed of 15 mph, one passenger carry.

I really want to exploit the law and attach a big ass electric motor to a fat-bike tire equipped cycle cart.

PHeller wrote: Too many cyclists try to act like they are semi-trucks. I just try to think of myself as a faster moving pedestrian.

I am the same way.. but then I am a heathen who rides a mountain bike, not a skinny tired road bike.

I personally think most road riding bike riders are idiots. Who would purposefully go out there in an area covered with faster, bigger moving vehicles when you have zero protection? Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Even the slightest mishap cannot go in the favor of the bike rider.

Regardless of what the law says I ride on the sidewalks whenever I can since a bike/pedestrian crash has less potential to be deadly than a bike/car crash.

I never ride on any road with traffic, especially the 2 lane roads around me. Fortunately I have about 6 miles of private roads in our neighborhood so I can circle them.

There's rights and then there's reality. Reality trumps the rule book every time!

Carguy.. I wish I could do that. Around here riding on the sidewalks -will- get your a ticket and there is only one bike path in the area that does not go where I want to go.

I do a lot of riding. Not just for pleasure, but I use my bicycle for almost everything except going to work, really long distances. (30+ miles), or when I can't get somewhere all hot and sweaty. Because of that, I -need- to share the road. there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

In reply to carguy123:

To be honest, most of the same could be said about motorcyclists.....

I used to put a lot of miles on the road on a bicycle. And I'm just as annoyed with the typical cyclist as everyone else. It's particularly bad in Tour de France season, everyone is riding their stages with no regard for the fact that there are vehicles on the road.

In reply to carguy123:

So do you commute in a semi truck?

I like peddling around on a bike but not in the road, there are bike trails for a reason. The US roads are not set up for bicycles, cars, and idiots, maybe two of the three but that's the limit.

I'm all for bikes, they're healthy and help reduce our oil dependency, but holy hell, there need to be some definite rules governing them. I despise having to give them all sorts of leeway, only to have one come up beside me at the lights, pass me, look both ways and cross on the red. Or decide at that point that they get to be a pedestrian, and cross on the walk in front of me. I try to give them plenty of room, but there is no way I'm creeping along doing 30k behind one if there's room to pass. And only supreme douchebags create animosity by riding two abreast to prevent that. A colleague and I were driving together on his first trip to California a few years ago... he was aghast when a group of spandex guys spread out to block our Mustang. He couldn't believe they were doing it on purpose... I told him to wait – you haven't seen the infamous "Prius brake-check" yet... which we experienced later that day.

dj06482 wrote: It's particularly bad in Tour de France season, everyone is riding their stages with no regard for the fact that there are vehicles on the road.

This is what about everyone wants to do to those you speak of.....

Count me as having one foot in each camp.

And by the way, the correct clothing for road cycling happens to be spandex. The shoes have cleats, the shorts bibs and shoulder straps, the jerseys wick moisture and are ventilated. Helmets look silly and keep you from dying as often when you get hit by a car. My cycling clothing is exactly as silly and unnecessary as the Nomex socks/long johns/balaclava I put on under my 3-layer Nomex drivers suit before putting on my fireproof shoes, gloves and helmet, arm restraints, HANS device, and 6-point harness)

I'm committed deeply to both excellence in driving and cycling. Also, I live 2 minutes from a the 2 lane park road w/ the highest density of road cyclists in the DC metro area, and ride on it very regularly.

As a cyclist I've sheared the road with cars for close to 40 years. In the 70's, road cyclists were very uncommon. and while riding in rural areas (bike racers routinely do training rides of 4 hours or more, so the country is where you'd head) I've had bottles and cans thrown at me, and have been run off the road a few times. I've been hit by cars 3 or 4 times, luckily with nothing more serious than a lower back that has caused me pain since 1997, and which will only get worse.

How do I ride? In Rock Creek Park, where I do my regular 25 mile loop, I assume that I have a bike lane:

• It's white, and it's about 4 inches wide, and the grass is about 3 inches to the right.

That's right. I try to ride on the white line at the far right edge of the lane. As I date back to when riders worked on being smooth and fluid, I ride in a straight line, and I try to keep it on the white.

The speed limit is 25, and on the flat parts I'm generally going about 20. The big problem is "drivers" who are so unaware of the extents of their vehicles that they will no pass me.

• WILL NOT PASS ME

Until they have an uninterrupted straight of at least 1/4 mile, at which point they put 2, possibly 4 wheels over the center line and floor it to hurtle by. I've been forced off the road by oncoming cars occupying the entire lane I'm, on the wrong side of the road, passing the bike in their lane.

And if there's " no place to pass" they'll sit behind me forever. I could be on the climb out of the park on a 98 degree day after 40 miles, going 15 mph, and the Prius will sit there until I fully stop to force them by.

What do "cyclists" do to piss me off? (I mean "The spandex set" - the casual riders have a bike path, and no, you can't ride a road bike at a steady state 20+ mph slaloming through families w/ unpredictable children on 16" bikes w/ training wheels)

• The cannot ride in a straight line. Their path is like a sine wave. C'mon, people, learn to ride in a straight line.

• They ride too far from the edge. Stay as far right as possible, please.

• They ride 2 abreast on a 2 lane road. I yell at cyclists all the time about this one. I roll along side and say "As a cyclist who's been wearing a furrow into the far right edge of Beach Drive since before you were born, this 2-abreast E36 M3 is pissing people off, and they'll end up taking it out on me. Please ride singe file. OK?"

As for the 3' rule, when I'm riding on or near the whit stripe a car can give me 3 and just kiss the center line. I'd LOVE IT if they'd do that. Don't even lift, just drive by like I'm not even there.

But they can't, and they don't.

I think we can all agree that a lot of bike riders shouldn't be allowed within a mile of a pair of spandex shorts.

My mother was holding hands with my four year old sister who was holding hands with my great aunt on a walking/biking path. A spandex clad female biker plowed over my sister, catching her clothes in the chain as she pedaled and continued to drag her for about 100 yards.

She had a stroke a few months later.

She lived, and is doing OK now, but she's had to endure decades of therapy, had to switch her right dominance to left, had to relearn how to write, walk, cannot drive a stick shift legally, etc...

I take extreme care when dealing with bikers.

Turnabout is fair play, I suppose...

Bicyclist pleads guilty to manslaughter in death of pedestrian in San Francisco crosswalk

I have no problem sharing the road with them, in fact I used to ride a lot. But they need to obey the same traffic laws as vehicle operators. That means staying in your lane, obeying traffic signals, going with the flow of traffic, and so on. There are have been many times crossing a street in Boston when they just fly by, wrong side of the road, through red lights etc.