Hell on Two Wheels: Know Your Rights
A fellow Appeal contributor asked me about what rights bicycles have to the road, and the Sarah Palin-inspired response I just now thought of...
These are the comments for Hell on Two Wheels: Know Your Rights
(5)
Culture/Entertainment Headlines
- "Music is really good right now": (Half Of) The Crystal Method, Interviewed
- A Dim Conclusion: Play and Endgame at A.C.T.
- Appealing TV: As Dancing With The Stars Ends, So You Think You Can Dance Begins
- Weekend Watch: The Dictator, Battleship, And Jack Black As A Singing Funeral Director
- Run Away, Screaming: What To Expecting When You're Expecting
- Appealing Events: Catch the Solar Eclipse In Locations Across SF
- Appealing Events: Ain't No Party Like A SF Department of Elections Party
- Appealing Events: The First Ever PlayGround Film Festival
John Murphy said:
November 23, 2009 5:03 PM
Reply
"And while I further wouldn't recommend it from a safety standpoint, I guess cycling drunk is better than driving drunk."
This depends on whose safety you are talking about. You are probably safer driving drunk than cycling drunk, but everyone else is probably safer if you are cycling drunk than driving drunk. Super-Freakonomics cites stats to indicate that walking home drunk is less safe per mile than driving home drunk, but this stat only includes one's own injuries, not the injuries inflicted on others.
Annoyingly, the hatred of many cabbies hold towards cyclists often expands to a refusal to put your bike in their trunk. I let them know why their tip was so small when I don't have my bike...
generic said:
November 23, 2009 5:19 PM
Reply
Generally, cyclists are allowed full use of lanes even if a bike lane is present, however on busy or narrow streets they must ride in single file.
It's absolutely maddening when they take up entire lanes, double-file. I didn't know it was illegal.
Christine Borden said:
November 23, 2009 6:44 PM
Reply
Jackson, this was super helpful. Thank you!
friscolex said:
November 24, 2009 12:00 PM
Reply
This was very interesting indeed. A little awareness on everyone's part goes a long way.
Important missed item, though: Do these rules apply to me drunkenly riding a shopping cart down a steep hill? I would not be wearing a helmet.
Also:
"Generally, cyclists are allowed full use of lanes even if a bike lane is present, however on busy or narrow streets they must ride in single file."
So what's busy or narrow?
Jym said:
November 24, 2009 1:59 PM
Reply
=v= It's noteworthy that most of the streets in San Francisco qualify as "substandard lane width" under the law, so the bit about keeping to the right does not apply.
Two corrections are in order:
(1) The prohibition against riding on the sidewalk is not statewide; it varies by jurisdiction. It is not legal for adult cyclists to ride on sidewalks in San Francisco. There are some multi-use paths that the blithering idiotfest on SFGate keeps referring to as sidewalks, too.
(2) Single file is not required by law. Bicyclists may pass each other, of course. The notion that this applies to "narrow streets" makes no sense because, as I wrote above, those are the very streets where bicyclists may use the entire lane. (Note how @generic immediately misapplied that claim to brush away our right to use the entire lane!)