STRAIGHTENING THE SHELVES IN THE BICYCLE LAW CUPBOARD:
OREGON 2005 LEGISLATURE PROPOSALS
Oregon traffic law fails to authorize several routine and necessary maneuvers frequently performed by bicycle riders. The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) has proposed several housekeeping matters that will improve Oregon’s traffic law.
CLARIFICATION OF BICYCLE LANE LAW
Oregon’s present bicycle lane law, ORS 814.420, creates a traffic infraction of “failure to use bicycle lane or path”. The law fails to create specific exceptions in its application that relate to traffic or maintenance problems like glass or gravel in the bicycle lane. Oregon should join states like California that provide specific legal exceptions to the requirement to use an available bicycle lane.
This year, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance Legislative Committee and BTA staffer Scott Bricker are working together on a collection of proposed updates of the law. This effort is being funded, in part, by a donation from bicyclist David Oberhausen who was hit by a delivery truck as he commuted in a bicycle lane in SW Portland. Strengthening and clarifying Oregon’s bicycle lane law will send the message that bicycle lanes have a well-developed set of rules for legal and safe usage.
ORS 814.420 provides as follows:
814.420. Failure to use bicycle lane or path; exceptions; penalty.
(1) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, a person commits the offense of failure to use a bicycle lane or path if the person operates a bicycle on any portion of a roadway that is not a bicycle lane or bicycle path when a bicycle lane or bicycle path is adjacent to or near the roadway.
(2) A person is not required to comply with this section unless the state or local authority with jurisdiction over the roadway finds, after public hearing, that the bicycle lane or bicycle path is suitable for safe bicycle use at reasonable rates of speed.
The BTA’s proposed clarification of the bike law reads as follows:
(3) Any person operating a bicycle upon the roadway at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at the time shall ride within an available bicycle lane, except that a person may move out of the lane when it may be done with reasonable safety under any of the following situations:
(a) When overtaking and passing another bicycle, vehicle or pedestrian within the lane or about to enter the lane if the overtaking and passing cannot be done safely within the lane;
(b) When preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway;
(c) When reasonably necessary to leave the bicycle lane to avoid debris or other hazardous conditions; or
(d) When approaching a place where a right turn is authorized.
(4) The offense described in this section, failure to use a bicycle lane or path, is a Class D traffic infraction.
REMOVE UNNECESSARY RESTRICTION ON SPEED IN CROSSWALKS
Oregon’s current crosswalk law places the speed limit of “an ordinary walk” for bicyclists crossing streets in the crosswalk. The current speed limit is unrealistically low and completely fails to take other wheeled conveyances like skateboards into account. Raising the speed limit to a more realistic but safe speed of 6 miles per hour does little to increase the risk for any rider, but allows riders to follow their usual safe commuting speed while staying within the speed limit. The present law serves as a trap because, as law enforcement officers and bike-law geeks can attest, almost no one knows about this ridiculously low speed limit, and it is so low that it is not followed.
The quote below shows how the law would be changed by the BTA proposal:
ORS 814.410(1) A person commits the offense of unsafe operation of a bicycle on a sidewalk if the person does any of the following:
(d) Operated the bicycle at a speed greater than 6 mph or a reasonable speed in light of the conditions then or there existing when approaching or entering a crosswalk, approaching or crossing a driveway or crossing a curb cut or pedestrian ramp and a motor vehicle is approaching the crosswalk, driveway, curb cut or pedestrian ramp. This paragraph does not require reduced speeds for bicycles either:
(A) At places on sidewalks or other pedestrian ways other than places where the path for pedestrians or bicycle traffic approaches or crosses that for motor vehicle traffic; or
(B) When motor vehicles are not present.
PASSING ON THE RIGHT
Another law most people fail to realize even exists is the prohibition on passing on the right when sharing a lane with cars. The law fails to take into account the unique relationship between bicyclists and motorists in that motorists are allowed to share the lane with bicycle riders and are allowed to pass slowly moving bicycle riders to the left, i.e. ,when there is not bike lane; when there is a bike lane then the bicyclist and the motorist are not sharing the same lane.) The present Oregon law fails to specifically authorize bicyclists passing motorists on the right, but it is an almost universal practice. While certainly a rider has to be careful about getting car-doored or hit by motorists making unsignaled right turns, engaging in a cooperative use of the roadway which allows the relatively narrow bicyclist to move to the front of the long line of stopped cars, should be a legal maneuver.
The passing interplay between motorists and bicyclists around the world makes good sense and is an efficient use of available lane space: bicyclists sometimes catch up to motorists at lights, move to the front of the stopped cars, the light changes, and the line of cars and bicyclists starts off, the cars slowly accelerate faster and pass up the bicyclists, frequently only to be caught again at the next light. This cooperative ballet of lane usage occurs naturally and, in most cases, safely. Oregon law should take into account the natural cycling of traffic patterns and add language which makes it legal to pass on the right when it can be done safely. The proposed language in bold face below would make this change:
811.415. Unsafe passing on right; penalty.
(1) A person commits the offense of unsafe passing on the right if the person:
(a) Drives a vehicle to overtake and pass upon the right of another vehicle at any time not permitted under this section.
(b) Drives a vehicle to overtake and pass upon the right of another vehicle at any time by driving off the paved portion of the highway.
(2) For purposes of this section, a person may drive a vehicle to overtake and pass upon the right of another vehicle under any of the following circumstances:
(a) Overtaking and passing upon the right is permitted if:
(A) The overtaken vehicle is making or the driver has signaled an intention to make a left turn;
(B) The paved portion of the highway is of sufficient width to allow two or more lanes of vehicles to proceed lawfully in the same direction as the overtaking vehicle; and
(C) The roadway ahead of the overtaking vehicle is unobstructed for a sufficient distance to permit passage by the overtaking vehicle to be made in safety.
(b) Overtaking and passing upon the right is permitted if the overtaken vehicle is proceeding along a roadway in the left lane of two or more clearly marked lanes allocated exclusively to vehicular traffic moving in the same direction as the overtaking driver.
(c) Overtaking and passing upon the right is permitted if the overtaking vehicle may do so with reasonable safety considering the conditions and circumstances then and there existing.
(3) The offense described in this section, unsafe passing on the right, is a Class B traffic infraction.
DEVELOP SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL FOR KIDS
Safe Routes to School programs are sustained efforts by schools, parents, local governments, and other community members to improve the health and safety of children by enabling and encouraging them to walk and bicycle to school. Supporters organize School Teams to examine the existing conditions and identify projects and activities to address to student transportation barriers.
The Bicycle Transportation Alliance is leading an effort to pass legislation that will create an Oregon-wide Safe Routes to Schools Program and Fund. Local communities will apply to the fund to:
> Develop Safe Routes to School Traffic Plans that document the barriers, hazards, and opportunities to efficiently, safely, and health travel to school.
> Implement solutions to student travel problems via a combination of engineering, education, encourage, and enforcement activities.
A statewide Safe Routes to School program will protect communities and schools from the negative impacts of growing traffic congestion. We are proud to help lead a growing partnership between police, school districts, cities and counties, public health advocates, insurance providers, community organizations, and citizens to develop effective education, enforcement, and engineering tools to solve school traffic safety problems.
The Safe Routes to School program makes bicycling and walking to school a safer and more fun alternative to being encased in parents’ cars, thus encouraging a healthy and active lifestyle. Early development of good physical habits will pay dividends later for Oregon’s young people.
CONCLUSION
Oregon needs to straighten its shelves and its cupboard of bicycle laws. As we develop a more sophisticated understanding of the ways that traffic facilities and rules can make the roadways a safer place for non-motorists, some laws must evolve to better clarify bicyclist rights and responsibilities.