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Bicycle laws in Calif

J

jvang125

Senior member
Hope someone can clear this up but from what i understand, bicycle riders have to follow the same motor vehicle laws if they are riding on the streets. so at a four way stop sign, they would have to stop just like a car and then proceed when safe. i may be wrong so correct me if i am.

this came up cause i visit Isla Vista in Santa Barbara quite often and the students there ride their bikes through intersections with almost no regards to car drivers. I'm just concern as i dont want to enter an intersection and some biker blows through the stop signs and hits me or i hit them.
 
The way I understand it is that yes, bike riders do have to follow the same laws as motor vehicles. So they should have to stop at a four way stop sign like everyone else. Of course, you should just assume that they won't just to play it safe. Even if it is their fault, you don't want to hit anyone.
 
Originally posted by: jvang125
Hope someone can clear this up but from what i understand, bicycle riders have to follow the same motor vehicle laws if they are riding on the streets. so at a four way stop sign, they would have to stop just like a car and then proceed when safe. i may be wrong so correct me if i am.

this came up cause i visit Isla Vista in Santa Barbara quite often and the students there ride their bikes through intersections with almost no regards to car drivers. I'm just concern as i dont want to enter an intersection and some biker blows through the stop signs and hits me or i hit them.
Click to expand...

i use to live in IV and bikes have the right of way, its not a law or anything but its the law of the land.

and driving a bike under the influence, BUI, is like a DUI, you get your license suspended for a year among other things....

GO GAUCHOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
 
Yep, all bikes are supposed to follow the rules of the road just like motor vehicles. Most of them don't though.
 
i believe you also need active lights on your bike during night, and need to register your bike for ~$10 every year. also you can't ride on the sidewalk (which is something i prefer to do for safety. cars around here drive real close to bikers in the bike lane).
 
Originally posted by: kermalou
Originally posted by: jvang125
Hope someone can clear this up but from what i understand, bicycle riders have to follow the same motor vehicle laws if they are riding on the streets. so at a four way stop sign, they would have to stop just like a car and then proceed when safe. i may be wrong so correct me if i am.

this came up cause i visit Isla Vista in Santa Barbara quite often and the students there ride their bikes through intersections with almost no regards to car drivers. I'm just concern as i dont want to enter an intersection and some biker blows through the stop signs and hits me or i hit them.
Click to expand...

i use to live in IV and bikes have the right of way, its not a law or anything but its the law of the land.

and driving a bike under the influence, BUI, is like a DUI, you get your license suspended for a year among other things....

GO GAUCHOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Click to expand...


hmm...i didn't know this was a special case in IV. i guess i just got to be extra careful around that area.
 
Those are pretty much the law everywhere as far as I know. If you're in the street, you follow the street rules just like anyone else driving/riding in the street. And since bicycles are non-motorized vehicles, it's technically illegal to ride them on sidewalks. But everyone does it anyway.
 
Yes, bicycles have to follow the same rules as cars. And when turning right, cars are supposed to use the bike lane as a right turn lane. Around where I work most of the people on bicycles are pretty good about riding with traffic, I've never had an issue. Around where I live issues happen because the roads are narrow, corners are blind, and traffic is high on the roads they ride on and they NEVER GET OUT OF THE WAY. But then noone uses a bicycle around my house for transportation (people import thier asses to ride on these roads), around my work the people are usually just going to work. Different mindset.
 
bikes are supposed to stop, but if there's no cars at the intersection, they usually just slow down and go through (california roll stop). This even happens at red lights on small streets. The group I ride with do it all the time (me included).

If there are cars waiting, the people are idiots. I'd honk if some jackass pulled out in front of me. Of course, I don't even think they use bike locks at UCSB, so odds that the guy will launch some bike he just borrowed into the side of your car are slightly higher.
 
I think they may be changing soon so that it's legal to be a cybernetic organism with a kid on a bike being chased by a truck....
 
Yes bicycles are suppose to follow the motor vechiles rules.

Usually they don't, which to me is humorous, if you are on a bicycle, you don't want
to be hit or run into a car. You don't come out the winner either way. You would figure
more people would stop. I can see the roll through, and I have seen people walk their bicycles
through red lights, which I believe is ok, because then you walking it, but I am not hundred percent sure
there.

As for enforcement, I have seen bicycle cops grap bicycles and give them tickets.
And once, I saw someone on a bicycle, being pulled over by a police car. I don't know
what kind of bad day the officer was having to pull someone over on a bicycle. Though the bicyclist did
have a child on the back, baby seat things, so maybe the officer wanted to remind the guy he should
not go through stop signs for the safety of his child.

 
At UCD, most everybody on campus bikes, and bikes are subject to the same rules as cars. There are even bike cops that regulate this
 
Originally posted by: kermalou
Originally posted by: jvang125
Hope someone can clear this up but from what i understand, bicycle riders have to follow the same motor vehicle laws if they are riding on the streets. so at a four way stop sign, they would have to stop just like a car and then proceed when safe. i may be wrong so correct me if i am.

this came up cause i visit Isla Vista in Santa Barbara quite often and the students there ride their bikes through intersections with almost no regards to car drivers. I'm just concern as i dont want to enter an intersection and some biker blows through the stop signs and hits me or i hit them.
Click to expand...

i use to live in IV and bikes have the right of way, its not a law or anything but its the law of the land.

and driving a bike under the influence, BUI, is like a DUI, you get your license suspended for a year among other things....

GO GAUCHOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Click to expand...



Sorry, bikes do NOT have the right of way in intersections. Bikes must follow the same traffic rules as cars and trucks and other motorized vehicles due to the fact they are classified as vehicles themselves. This is consistent in all 50 U.S. states. Just look it up in any state's driver's manual.
 
As a UCSB alumni I can tell you about the great biking community that IV is. Yes, bicyclists are supposed to follow the same motor vehicle laws, but IV is a very unique situation. On the campus, bikes have right of way above all. This bleeds into IV. If you are driving in IV, you are already asking for trouble. So just get used to it. Never ever try to assert your right of way. If you run a student over, that's just bad.

C'DaleRider, I don't think you quite understand the difference between written law and local "law"
 
Originally posted by: sygyzy
As a UCSB alumni I can tell you about the great biking community that IV is. Yes, bicyclists are supposed to follow the same motor vehicle laws, but IV is a very unique situation. On the campus, bikes have right of way above all. This bleeds into IV. If you are driving in IV, you are already asking for trouble. So just get used to it. Never ever try to assert your right of way. If you run a student over, that's just bad.

C'DaleRider, I don't think you quite understand the difference between written law and local "law"
Click to expand...
The difference is plain. The first actually is a law, and the latter is nothing more than a convention. "Everybody does it", and "it's just a local unwritten thing" are not justification for improper actions. Failing to follow traffic laws while on a bicycle is not only dangerous but just plain discourteous to other drivers.

ZV
 
^^^ What ZV said.

Some rules that no one follows:
- Helmet REQUIRED when bicycling in CA.
- You MUST walk your bike in a crosswalk. I have seen people ticketed for this.
- Obey all traffic signs and laws.

I think that there may be laws against riding on sidewalks as well.

 
Originally posted by: dquan97
At UCD, most everybody on campus bikes, and bikes are subject to the same rules as cars. There are even bike cops that regulate this
Click to expand...

Yep. And they really enforce it in Davis. Knew people who got nailed for not having lights on their bikes, or running stop signs.
 
MY pet peeve here at A&M is that all these jacka$$es think it is ok to park in the bike lanes. This has lead to other cars adjusting over and bikers having to go around and I have gotten bumped. ALso my roomate got taken out pretty bad when a car that stopped at a stopsign opened the door into the bike lane right as he was going past the car and he was pretty messed up since the corner of the door clipped him and sent him into a tree.
 
I wish people rode the right direction in the bike lanes. As much as I would like to play chicken with my new bike...
 
some other rules at UCSB, there are some places on campus where one cannot ride a bike and if you do, you WILL get a ticket by the most hated power hungriest people in the world..THE CSOs. them asses gave me more than one ticket there.

but in IV, everyone learns that bikes will go wherever whenever they want.


when you are a bike rider and dont have a car, you dont care. but when you start driving in IV that is a totally different story.
 
Originally posted by: amnesiac
^^^ What ZV said.

Some rules that no one follows:
- Helmet REQUIRED when bicycling in CA.
- You MUST walk your bike in a crosswalk. I have seen people ticketed for this.
- Obey all traffic signs and laws.

I think that there may be laws against riding on sidewalks as well.
Click to expand...


(a) A person under 18 years of age shall not operate a bicycle, or ride upon a bicycle as a passenger, upon a street, bikeway, as defined in Section 890.4 of the Streets and Highways Code, or any other public bicycle path or trail unless that person is wearing a properly fitted and fastened bicycle helmet that meets the standards of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI Z 90.4 bicycle helmet standard), the Snell Memorial Foundation's Standard for Protective Headgear for Use in Bicycling, or the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM F-1447 standard). This requirement also applies to a person who rides upon a bicycle while in a restraining seat that is attached to the bicycle or in a trailer towed by the bicycle.
Click to expand...

Unless you are a freshman in college or a genius, a helmet is defnitely not necessary. I'd say 1% of the UCSB population wears them. Even less if you just count riders through IV.
 
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