Brian and I were pulled over this morning by a Seattle Police officer for riding two abreast on a somewhat sleepy four lane road near Georgetown. It was all a bit unbelievable and humorous, but it also made me realize that I don't know any of my rights as a Washington State cyclist. Funny, since I ride 250 or more days out of the year.
We talked ourselves out of the situation and promised we would never ride two abreast again (wink-wink). When we made it to Raleigh, I checked to see if what we had done was an "official"
violation of the law. Ha, it wasn't! According to Washington State Law RCW 46.61.770 and Seattle law 11.44.060, bicyclists are allowed to ride two abreast. I kind of wish he had ticketed us so that I could make a big to do about being harassed while riding my bicycle to work and going well under the speed limit.
*Note* Learn your rights as a bicyclist and carry along that little rule book if your state or city provides one.
We talked ourselves out of the situation and promised we would never ride two abreast again (wink-wink). When we made it to Raleigh, I checked to see if what we had done was an "official"
violation of the law. Ha, it wasn't! According to Washington State Law RCW 46.61.770 and Seattle law 11.44.060, bicyclists are allowed to ride two abreast. I kind of wish he had ticketed us so that I could make a big to do about being harassed while riding my bicycle to work and going well under the speed limit.
*Note* Learn your rights as a bicyclist and carry along that little rule book if your state or city provides one.
Washington Bicycle Laws
Seattle Bicycle Laws
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6 comments:
This stuff is good to know for sure, and it is indeed a good idea to carry a copy of relevant code around with you to show the police officer.
Here's a handy resource for looking up the various state laws on bicycling:
http://www.massbike.org/bikelaw/statelaws.htm
It's also useful to have when you're confronted by angry motorists who think they know better than you what your rights as a cyclist are.
YOu could still mail it to the police :)
Your link to bikely... isn't. Extra http in the code.
Ed W thanks for the link - a great resource everyone should check out.
I guess if you are on the road as much as we are, we're bound to be confronted by the police and more so by "angry motorists" as Jamie mentioned. Point being, I need to do more research and get myself up to code. Thanks everyone for your comments and links.
PS- bikely link should work now
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