Bicycle & Skate Law
Bicycles Are Not Subject to Oregon's
Slow Moving Vehicle Law
by Ray Thomas
Ray Thomas is a Portland bike lawyer.
Sometimes it is difficult to know when a particular law does or does not apply to bicyclists. Confusion about application of the rules of the road and vehicle laws sometimes results when frustrated motorists turn to the statutes to try to put bicyclists in their "proper" place on the roadway; but bicyclists' rights and responsibilities on the roadway are somewhat of a legal hybrid in the Oregon statutes. Motorist frustration must not be allowed to diminish bicyclists' legitimate right to occupy the traveled portion of the roadway, and even to occupy a full lane when necessary to avoid surface hazards or other potential dangers.
Much of the confusion results from failing to consider the vehicle laws in their entirety. For example, a recent question making the rounds of the bicycle advocacy community involves a bicyclist's obligation to a passing motorist. The question, elevated at this point to the status of a Portland urban myth, involves the complaint by a woman pulling a horse trailer who feels that bicyclists on Skyline Boulevard should be cited for impeding traffic or failing to pull off the road to allow her to pass. She stated that in certain places bicycle riders fail to pull over in order to allow her to comfortably pass, which causes her to slow down until there is sufficient sight distance to go around them.
Of course, from the bicyclists' perspective, the obligation to ride only as far to the right as practicable is the legal "bottom line," mandated by ORS 814.430.
814.430. Improper use of lanes; exceptions; penalty.
- A person commits the offense of improper use of lanes by a bicycle if the person is operating a bicycle on a roadway at less than the normal speed of traffic using the roadway at that time and place under the existing conditions and the person does not ride as close as practicable to the right curb or edge of the roadway.
- A person is not in violation of the offense under this section if the person is not operating a bicycle as close as practicable to the right curb or edge of the roadway under any of the following circumstances:
- When overtaking and passing another bicycle or vehicle that is proceeding in the same direction.
- When preparing to execute a left turn.
- When reasonably necessary to avoid hazardous conditions including, but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, parked or moving vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, animals, surface hazards or other conditions that make continued operation along the right curb or edge unsafe or to avoid unsafe operation in a lane on the roadway that is too narrow for a bicycle and vehicle to travel safely side by side. Nothing in this paragraph excuses the operator of a bicycle from the requirements under > ORS 811.425 or from the penalties for failure to comply with those requirements.
- When operating within a city as near as practicable to the left curb or edge of a roadway that is designated to allow traffic to move in only one direction along the roadway. A bicycle that is operated under this paragraph is subject to the same requirements and exceptions when operating along the left curb or edge as are applicable when a bicycle is operating along the right curb or edge of the roadway.
- When operating a bicycle alongside not more than one other bicycle as long as the bicycles are both being operated within a single lane and in a manner that does not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic.
- When operating on a bicycle lane or bicycle path.
- The offense described in this section, improper use of lanes by a bicycle, is a Class D traffic infraction.
"Oregon Bicyclists' Bill of Rights." ORS 814.430 allows riders to maintain occupancy of the entire lane when necessary to avoid surface hazards or other potential dangers. For a motorist pulling a trailer on the many short hills on Skyline Boulevard, this sometimes requires slowing down until bicyclists find places in the route which allow them to ride close to the fog line. Since there are many bicyclists on Skyline Boulevard, it is inevitable that motorists and bicyclists will get plenty of practice at maneuvering around each other.
The question posed by the horse lady was whether ORS 811.425, describing the offense of Failure to Yield to An Overtaking Vehicle, mandates that a bicyclist, as a "slower driver" must move their "vehicle" off the "main traveled portion of the roadway" when overtaken by a faster motorist, such as someone pulling a horse trailer. ORS 811.425 provides:
811.425 Failure of slower driver to yield to overtaking vehicle; penalty.
- A person commits the offense of failure of a slower driver to yield to overtaking vehicles if the person is driving a vehicle and the person fails to move the person's vehicle off the main traveled portion of the highway into an area sufficient for safe turnout when:
- The driver of the overtaken vehicle is proceeding at a speed less than a designated speed under ORS 911.105.
- The driver of the overtaking vehicle is proceeding at a speed in conformity with ORS 811.105.
- The highway is a two directional, two-lane highway.
- There is no clear lane for passing available to the driver of the overtaking vehicle.
- This section does not apply to the driver of a vehicle in a funeral procession.
- The offense described in this section, failure of a slower driver to yield to overtaking vehicle, is a Class B traffic violation.
While at first reading it appears to be applicable to the Skyline Boulevard example, the slow moving vehicle law does not apply to bicyclists, because bicycle riders are not "drivers" who are "driving a vehicle."
While it is correct that ORS 814.400 applies vehicle laws to bicycles, it exempts "those provisions that by their very nature can have no application." ORS 814.400(1)(a). Thus, it is necessary to determine whether the slow moving vehicle law, ORS 811.425, applies to bicycles.
ORS 811.425 provides that a person commits the offense of failure of a slower driver to yield to an overtaking vehicle "if the person is driving a vehicle and "fails" to move the person's vehicle off the main traveled portion of the roadway . . ." ORS 811.425(1). (emphasis supplied). If a person is not "driving" a vehicle then the law does not apply to them.
Thus, the requirement in ORS 811.425 that a person be "driving a vehicle" necessarily eliminates bicycles from the scope of the statute. To understand this point, one has to realize that every time the Rules of the Road and Vehicle Code refer to bicycles in motion the term "driven" is never used; instead, bicycles are "operated" or "ridden." This distinction becomes significant because the statute only applies to vehicles being "driven." We "ride" or "operate," we don't "drive" our bicycles.
The interpretation of the statute related above is not mere bike advocacy. If a motorist urges that bicyclists should be made to shoulder the responsibilities of slow moving vehicles, then one wonders if the same motorist would also be willing to allow bicyclists to assert the same rights as slow moving vehicles. For example, motorists may not pass a slow-moving vehicle until its driver is able to find a "safe turnout" per the slow moving vehicle law.
ORS 801.026 "General exemptions; exceptions," states "devices that are powered exclusively by human power are not subject to those provisions of the vehicle code that relates to vehicles. Not withstanding this subsection, bicycles are generally subject to the vehicle code as provided under ORS 814.400." ORS 801.026(6). While it is true that bicycles are not exempted as human powered vehicles, bicycles are not "driven" as are motorized vehicles.
811.425 On a road with few turnouts and few passing zones, like the steep climb up from Government Camp to Timberline Lodge, motorists would be legally restricted from passing slow moving bicyclists.
On the other hand, under existing law, motorists need not wait for a passing zone to pass slow moving bicycles. If the law were otherwise chaos on the roadway would result when impatient drivers in no passing zones got stuck behind bicyclists in areas without "safe turnouts." The existing system allows bicyclists and motorists to share the same roadway - bike riders need not pull over, and motorists don't have to wait for passing zones to pass. Motorists with wide vehicles need to recognize that they would actually lose legal ground if the slow moving vehicle law applied to bicyclists.
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