We have been getting a lot of questions from people who are unsure about bicycling laws in Philadelphia.
If you are looking for info on the rules of the road, please refer to the Bicycle Ambassadors handouts (in both English and Spanish), and look at our 'Guide to Biking in Philly', or for more extensive info the 'Safe Bicycling in Philadelphia' guidebook. 'Safe Bicycling in Philadelphia' lists the laws that relate to bikes, and also has plenty of tips and advice for how to safely follow them.
The Regulations for bicycles in Philadelphia are a bit more strict than the laws of the State. Make sure you know the Pennsylvania laws and Philadelphia regulations. Click here for amended sections in the Philadelphia Bicycle Regulations and Penalties Chapter 12-800.
For even more info, the BCGP's Education and Safety Materials includes more links, such as PA's 'Bicycle Drivers Manual'.
Friday, November 20, 2009
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7 comments:
This is in response to your tweet, which said, "Lots of people asking 'What are the rules of the road for bicycles, actually?'"
There's a difference between "rules" in the sense of "official on-the-books laws"... and "rules" in the sense of "how to ride to not piss anyone off, and thus eventually get run down by a jackoff in an SUV".
A bike may, by law, have the same duties as a motor vehicle, but it certainly doesn't have the same rights. I appreciate that Bicycle Ambassadors have to put on a perfectly law-abiding front, but the simple fact is that it's unfeasible, even dangerous, to perfectly follow the letter of the law.
(This of course doesn't apply to sidewalk and wrong-way riding. That's just stupid, and dangerous for everyone: pedestrians and legitimate bikers.)
As an example, riding four feet away from parked cars sounds fantastic, but only if you don't go deaf from the honks of the cars lined up behind you first. The handout is great, if drivers were courteous and law-abiding. But this is Philly.
Can't you just link to the PA vehicle code? What are the laws in the City that supersede, supplement or augment the state laws?
Hey Pete,
Good point, thanks! I've added links directly to the vehicle code for Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. Does that help? I think it's useful to also have a less formal version of the laws, though, for people (such as myself) who find legal language sort of confusing.
This still isn't telling me how to make a left turn from a bike lane. It seems reasonable to me to move over to the left hand side of the road 1/2 block or so ahead of the intersection so as to be in position to turn left, but I had some folks yell at me to "get in the bike lane" the last time I did that in the 2000 block of Spruce Street, preparing to turn left on 21st St.
LB, The people who yelled at you are not the law, and you acted correctly and legally. However, given that merging into the left lane can sometimes be difficult and/or impossible --even when you don't have people yelling at you-- the easy and less stressful alternative is to make a 'box turn': http://bikePHL.bicyclecoalition.org/2009/09/safe-left-turns-in-city.html
I make box turns sometimes, as Max suggested. Nothing wrong with them, except that they're slower than vehicular left turns, as described by LB. Of course, bikelanes in most situations (including city streets with frequent intersections) set up a slew of non-vehicular expectations (which can vary from one intersection to the next, and otherwise confuse the public into having collisions), which is one reason why I don't like them.
Responding to Supercres Patrick's comment: being yelled at is an annoyance; being doored is an accident that can kill you (Riin Gill of the University of Michigan stopped counting dooring fatalities years ago, after she got up to about 20). Four feet is marginal; it will have you in the "startle zone" much of the time, and wide doors (think Chevrolet Monte Carlo) can reach far enough to just nick your handlebars and send you sprawling off to your left -- which is how Dana Laird died in Cambridge in 2002.
I would like to see motorists come to expect bicyclists who NEVER endanger themselves by riding in the door zone, NEVER ride on the sidewalk, NEVER ride at night and NEVER fail to comply with stop lights and signs. In the long run, that will minimize the incivility that Patrick cites.
The trick is knowing how to ride to make the rules of the road work for you. The Pennsylvania Bicycle Driver's Manual, distributed by PennDOT and often available at the offices of state senators and representatives, does an excellent job of explaining this.
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