Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
Speed limit signs, maximum speed limits that is, are seen all over town, in the city, and in the country. Some types of roads have “statutory” maximum speed limits, and the limit signs need not be posted; for example residential areas have a statutory limit of 25mph. Continue reading “Speed Limit”
Bicycle Laws in the United States-Past, Present, and Future is an ambitious, scholarly article written by attorney Ken McLeod, who also happens to be a member of LAB’s s Legal Affairs Committee. And has written much of the content available on LAB’s site relating to laws and legal matters, e.g. bike-law-university and the paper is reflective of the information there, just perhaps in a more technical/scholarly format. Continue reading “Bicycle Laws in the United States-Past, Present, and Future”
Arizona, like the large majority of other states, as well as the UVC has a bicyclist-specific rule about “where to ride” laterally; enjoining bicyclists to ride toward the right edge, but with a wide variety of exceptions [The LAB says 42 states plus D.C. has some form of this rule bikeleague.org/content/bike-law-university also see bicycle-laws-in-the-united-states-past-present-and-future ] Continue reading “Arizona’s FTR Law”
Arizona already has a law that functions very much like a “Vulnerable User Law“, it is applicable in virtually all cases where a driver causes a collision resulting in a pedestrian serious injury/fatality; and in many cases where the victim is a bicyclist.
[ UPDATE: in 2018 the legislature increase penalities for the law referenced below; see 28-672, 675 & 676 ]
On March 3, 2012 bicyclist Sean Mccarty was riding in a bike lane in north Scottsdale when a motorist for unknown or unstated reasons swerved or drifted partially from Lane 2 into the bike lane, striking and killing the bicyclist. Possible criminal actions on the part of the driver such as excessive speed, or impairment were quickly ruled out by investigators, and the motorist was very quickly issued two traffic citations, 28-735 (the “three foot” rule) and another for 28-815D (driving in a bike lane prohibited); and paid a fine of $420 [1]. Very similar situations occurred in the fatal collisions of both Allen Johnson in Pima County, and Jerome Featherman in Green Valley. Continue reading “Arizona already has a “Vulnerable User Law””
The most concise, least able to be misconstrued, message about which direction a bicyclist must operate, is “Ride With Traffic”, it’s the inscription on a R9-3cP plaque. But what is “with traffic”, or “the flow of traffic” or “the direction of traffic”? And why do we so often hear “ride right”, “bike right”, “Be a Roll Model: Ride on the Right” or some other clever-sounding catchphrase? Continue reading “Ride With Traffic”
The law specifying the maximum vehicle width for Arizona is below, and for comparison, the UVC is also copied. Continue reading “Width of Vehicles”
Readers of azbikelaw might remember I am not a fan of vulnerable user laws for reasons stated in the main article. There’s no denying this has become a major rallying point among large majorities of bicycle advocates.
Whether you think this type of law is a good idea or a bad idea, the interplay between a bicyclist group and a motorcyclist group in Wisconsin could be informative…
Jump to the Wisconsin materials in the main article.
[Update — a newer presentation of more-or-less the same material can be found at azbikelaw.org/ride-with-traffic ]
Phoenix last week rolled out a major media blitz to target wrong-way riding
They all struggle with the fact that the direction of riding on sidewalks, in Phoenix, is not regulated. In other words, it’s not illegal to ride counter-flow on Phoenix sidewalks. But they didn’t do a scrupulous job of noting the difference between legal counter-flow sidewalk riding, and the (always) illegal counter-flow street riding. Since the State of Arizona has chosen not to regulate riding on the sidewalk at all, and individual cites do, the topic is voluminous — for much much more about sidewalk riding see sidewalk-cycling-in-arizona.
So some of the stories take odd turns, like the the notion that “…because riding a short distance against traffic sometimes might be safer, Wilcoxon says”. Oh my. Continue reading “Phoenix media blitz addresses wrong-way riding”
[Mid-2018 southbound btw Southern and Baseline was restriped to add a 3rd southbound travel lane #restripe ]
[ONGOING still March 2017: There is a City of Tempe McClintock Project Page which is updated has has a long history section]
McClintock Drive resurfacing project, city of Tempe, AZ completed July 2015 — added left buffered Bike Lanes (LBBL) between Guadalupe and Broadway Roads, (the southbound side actually begins 1/2 mile north of Broadway at Apache) which incidentally crosses a major freeway interchange, US60. This is another in a series of “innovative” bicycle infrastructure projects recently completed in the City of Tempe. Continue reading “McClintock Road resurfacing and left buffered bike lanes”
Although you won’t find many arterial roads with wide lanes (where bicyclists generally must ride as far to the right as practicable), many collector roads around the Phoenix area have them.
Check out one-road-4-treatments for the full story, this addition pictured at right , Knox Road in the City of Tempe has both narrow and wide lanes.
The Hardy Drive Streetscape project re-did this 30mph posted, low-speed collector street between University Dr. and Broadway Rd, more specifically, the project only affected bicycle infrastructure between 9th and 19th Street, a distance of about 9/10ths of a mile. [google maps] The project was completed in early 2015 about the same time as the the University Drive Streetscape Project. Continue reading “Hardy Drive Streetscape project”
[this will be a catch-all for issues relating to legal requirement to use bike lanes (BLs). This was moved from the article explaining When must I ride my bicycle on the shoulder?, because it was muddying that issue unnecessarily; after all BLs are not shoulders and shoulders are not BLs. For all the details about shoulders, see that article; the short answer is their use is almost never required, that conclusion stems from the fact that shoulders are not part of the roadway.] Continue reading “Arizona does NOT have a mandatory Bike Lane Law”
Below is re-printed from the Arizona Republic , the quiz accompanied their article on ADOT’s BSAP):
The Arizona Department of Transportation recommends strengthening state laws and adding more questions about bicycle safety in driver’s license tests. Many people don’t know the existing rules. How well do you?
(note these are suggested questions; not in actual use. Also note they do not follow the standard format of 3 answers)
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This article is very similar to: bicycles-arent-vehicles
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A bicyclist is considered the driver of a vehicle for the purposes of the transportation code, A.R.S. Title 28.; and at the same time, a bicycle is excluded from the definition of vehicle.
More fully, a bicyclist is “…granted all of the rights and is subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle…” §28-812, which goes on to state specifically which Chapters of Title 28 these rules apply to, 3, 4 and 5 which are the Rules of the road, DUI, and Penalties, respectively. Continue reading “The driver of a vehicle”
It is important to get all Law Enforcement Officers properly trained on the rules of the road for drivers of vehicles; and how that affects bicyclists. A constant bone of contention is where-to-ride-on-the-road, and I have several types of (mostly general, not state-specfic) training materials linked there. Continue reading “AZPOST — Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training”