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2011BlogRoad Rights

Road Rights – How To Keep Your Group Rides Legal

By September 18, 2011October 23rd, 2021No Comments

Etiquette tip No. 1: Give traffic room to pass. (Michael Robertson)

Some tips on keeping the long arm of the law away from your ride.

By Bob Mionske

Cyclists like to ride in packs for many reasons—camaraderie, training, to hide from the wind. But packs of cyclists sometimes irritate other road users, to the point that some communities try to regulate group rides.

In 2007, the New York City police department required groups of 50 or more cyclists to secure a parade permit. Cyclists challenged the rule in court, but their lawsuit was dismissed. It’s not just huge, Critical Mass–style rides that are coming under scrutiny—even your local shop ride could be at risk. In 2009, the Citizens for Safety Coalition of Iowa circulated a petition urging the legislature to keep cyclists off farm-to-market roads.

Why is this happening?

For one thing, some people believe roads are exclusively for motorized traffic, and they probably won’t like us no matter what we do. But other motorists will judge us based on how we interact with them, and we’re more likely to disregard the laws when we ride en masse than when we pedal by ourselves. Riding in a pack allows us to feel less personal responsibility and provides some anonymity.

There’s also the element of competition—sometimes the hammer goes down and the ride becomes an uncontrolled race. If you yield the right of way or stop at a light, you may end up riding alone. You have a fraction of a second to decide—not the best scenario for making choices that might affect drivers, pedestrians, and other road users.

The better an impression we give others, the easier it will be to defend our rights. Here’s how to help keep the peace:

—Ride single file or two abreast, depending on the law in your state.

—Follow all traffic laws. Signal turns and don’t blow through stop signs.

—As tempting as it is, don’t pass slow-moving traffic on the right. It’s illegal in most states, and you could easily ride into the path of a right-turning car. Instead, pass on the left (if there’s a passing lane) or get in line behind them.

—Try to keep any conversations with drivers civil, even if the motorist is in the wrong.

Research and assistance by Rick Bernardi, J.D.

Also see: 9 Paceline Rules

 

This article, How to Keep Your Group Rides Legal, was originally published on Bicycling on September 18, 2011.

Now read the fine print:
Bob Mionske is a former competitive cyclist who represented the U.S. at the 1988 Olympic games (where he finished fourth in the road race), the 1992 Olympics, as well as winning the 1990 national championship road race.
After retiring from racing in 1993, he coached the Saturn Professional Cycling team for one year before heading off to law school. Mionske’s practice is now split between personal-injury work, representing professional athletes as an agent and other legal issues facing endurance athletes (traffic violations, contract, criminal charges, intellectual property, etc).
Mionske is also the author of Bicycling and the Law, designed to be the primary resource for cyclists to consult when faced with a legal question. It provides readers with the knowledge to avoid many legal problems in the first place, and informs them of their rights, their responsibilities, and what steps they can take if they do encounter a legal problem.
If you have a cycling-related legal question, please send it to mionskelaw@hotmail.com Bob will answer as many of these questions privately as he can. He will also select a few questions each week to answer in this column. General bicycle-accident advice can be found at bicyclelaw.com.
Important notice:
The information provided in the “Road Rights” column is not legal advice. The information provided on this public web site is provided solely for the general interest of the visitors to this web site. The information contained in the column applies to general principles of American jurisprudence and may not reflect current legal developments or statutory changes in the various jurisdictions and therefore should not be relied upon or interpreted as legal advice. Understand that reading the information contained in this column does not mean you have established an attorney-client relationship with attorney Bob Mionske. Readers of this column should not act upon any information contained in the web site without first seeking the advice of legal counsel.