Often as drivers we can have the mentality that the road is ours and all others beware. Jack Yazembiak of Erie wrote a letter to ETN describing how some people dangerously drive too close to him while he is biking along the right-shoulder of a roadway:
I don’t understand why many drivers speed past someone on a bicycle, at 40-plus mph, just inches away, when they can just slide over to their left. I’ve had tractor-trailers, dump trucks, even a city bus and many cars pass so close I could reach out and touch them.
What Jack and many other’s don’t realize is that those drivers are breaking the law.
General rule: The driver of a vehicle overtaking another vehicle proceeding in the same direction shall pass to the left of the other vehicle at a safe distance and shall stay to the left of the other vehicle until safely clear of the overtaken vehicle. (Pennsylvania Vehicle Code.)
Guess what? Bicycles (or pedalcycles as referred to in the PA Code) are considered vehicles for purposes of the law. Not only that but bicycles are allowed on roadways–including left-hand lanes when making a left turn. (So don’t feel so self-righteous next time you honk your horn thinking that bicycles belong on the sidewalk.)
But do we really need to recite the law when common sense should prevail? Summer is just getting started and so we’re all going to see more bicyclists out on the road, especially with the price of gas averaging $4.00 a gallon. Please be safe and when you encounter someone bicycling on the road, slow down and give them some room.
the bikes are OK in my mind. What ever happend to the J-Walking law? You drive down town and see people walking down the street, or crossing in the middle of the street and expect you to stop so they can cross. If the city is hard up for cash – start fining all the people that walk in the middle of the street.
The state of California fines J-Walkers almost $575.
basketball is OK – them seem to stop to let the car, truck, motorcycle, etc pass…. but the ones that just walk in the middle of the road like its a sidewalk – NEED FINED!!.
Get the point across. No $10 fine – to them its a dime bag. Make the fine $400 for each offence, or jail.
One commet on the bike post…. I obay the bicycles on the street, but what gets me are the ones on bicycles that do not obay street signs or lights. They just roll right through stop signs, and lights. If you ask me, if they are on the street and they have the right to be there, they must obay the same laws as the street. If they get special treatment, then i should be aloud to blow stop signs, red lights, with my gasoline powered 2 wheeler – mine has turn signals too.
“…but what gets me are the ones on bicycles that do not obay street signs or lights.”
Under the PA Vehicle code, bicyclists are required to obey and follow the same law that drivers of automobiles must follow. This means stopping at stop signs, riding on the right-side of the road, etc. It can be just as dangerous for everyone involved when a bicyclist doesn’t obey traffic laws as when a driver of a vehicle.