They’re Designated BIKE Lanes
I’ve got a question for my running friends and my cycling friends.
Here in good ol’ Erie, Pennsylvania, we don’t have much in the way of bike lanes on our roadways. We’ve got what’s known as the Multi-Purpose Trail at Presque Isle State Park, which, on a good day, is wide enough to accommodate cyclists, rollerbladers, joggers, and walkers (except for those new “surrey” type cycle things that take up the whole damned width of the path – whose bright idea was that?)
But we’ve got precious few designated Bike Lanes, the most popular being Bike Route Z, which goes from the New York State Line to the Ohio State Line… including right through downtown Erie. And it’s the downtown portion of it that is causing a bit of consternation. Here’s the dilemma:
Packs of runners/joggers/walkers using the bike lane.
On any given weekday, between about 11:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., there seems to be an abundance of people out for a nice lunchtime jog/run/walk. And, as opposed to using the sidewalks, they like to use the Bike Lanes. And many of them (hello… downtown lawyer dudes…I’m talking to yoooooooooou) do not get out of the way when an actual bicycle has the nerve to use the Bike Lane.
Now, if I’m reading the law correctly, technically, pedestrians, be they walking or running, are supposed to use the sidewalk when one is available.
Here’s the Pennsylvania law pertaining to pedestrians using sidewalks:
Section 3544. Pedestrians walking along or on highway.
(a) Mandatory use of available sidewalk.—Where a sidewalk is provided and its use is practicable, it is unlawful for any pedestrian to walk along and upon an adjacent roadway.(b) Absence of sidewalk.—Where a sidewalk is not available, any pedestrian walking along and upon a highway shall walk only on a shoulder as far as practicable from the edge of the roadway.
(c) Absence of sidewalk and shoulder.—Where neither a sidewalk nor a shoulder is available, any pedestrian walking along and upon a highway shall walk as near as practicable to an outside edge of the roadway and, if on a two-way roadway, shall walk only on the left side of the roadway.
(d) Right-of-way to vehicles.—Except as otherwise provided in this subchapter, any pedestrian upon a roadway shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.
But, around here, and I’ve seen this firsthand, packs of runners are not getting out of the way of bicycles in the bike lanes. Instead, I’ve witnessed bicycles being forced to veer into the car lanes to avoid head-on collisions with runners who seem to be insisting that they have the right-of-way in the bike lane and that their “packs” have the right to the entire lane… they don’t even fall into single file when a bike approaches.
And damnit I’m irritated. It’s not bad enough that we cyclists get angry motorists yelling obscenities at us or telling us to “get off the road” or “use the sidewalk” when we’re riding legally… and it’s not bad enough that motorists use the bike lanes as turning lanes or parking lanes… and it’s not bad enough that we have very few bikes lanes at all… but now we’ve got runners/joggers/walkers who think they should be able to use the lanes, not in addition to cyclists, but instead of cyclists. And I’m more than just a a wee bit peeved about it.
So, I’m asking cyclists and runners to weigh in on this. Am I out of line expecting pedestrians to yield the right of way to cyclists in a dedicated bike lane? Or, at the very least, fall into a single file line so the cyclist can at least use a portion of the Bike Lane? Is it overly bitchy of me to expect that cyclists should have the right-of-way on a state designated Bike Route/Lane, especially when there is a sidewalk available for pedestrian use?
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June 16th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
I think the law you’re citing doesn’t say all that you say it does–namely, is a bike lane a roadway? That law doesn’t say that pedestrians are always to use a sidewalk when one is available; rather, they’re to use a sidewalk instead of a roadway. I suppose state law may have defined a bike lane as a roadway, but it may not have, believing that it would open such up to other types of unintended vehicles. So, without more, those downtown lawyer dudes may have read the law and concluded that you bikers can pound it.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Gee, Jer, I apologize for not providing more information about bike lanes. I was confident that any person of average intelligence would realize that a bike lane is, indeed, part of the roadway. My mistake.
“A bicycle lane is a portion of roadway that is designated
by striping, signing, and pavement markings for the
preferential or exclusive use of bicyclists. Bike lanes are
designed to promote predictable movements of bicyclists
and motorists. Bike lane markings can increase a bicyclist’s
confidence in motorists staying within their path of travel.
Likewise, passing motorists are less likely to swerve to the
left out of their lane to avoid bicyclists on the right, if the
bicyclists are within a bicycle lane.”
June 16th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
When I used to run to stay in shape for my school sports, I always found joggers I passed to be such wankers and all around humorless pricks. When I gave up running for cycling I found that the cycling culture was the polar opposite of the jogging crowd.
A bike lane is part of the roadway and the travel lane. If you read the vehicle code, it’s clear that joggers (including posers prancing around in their little jogging shorts) are not allowed to use the road, except to cross the street.
Maybe these ambulance chasers should brush up on contributory negligence.
June 17th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Wow – luckily only bicycles tend to use the bike lanes in Denver. Although i could go on and on about the runners on the “bike paths” (off road paths throughout the city for – yes, bikes).
I would say it was inconsiderate to force a bicycle into traffic when on foot period. By law or not.
I do know depending what mode of transport i am currently using – car, bike, or foot i tend to feel I should have the right of way when i’m doing it!
June 17th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
I will use the sidewalks in my town before anything else. It’s just safer. But when I get out into the country, and sidewalks cease to be an option, I have to run on the road. We don’t have any bike lanes at all here. I keep to the very edge of the road and yield to cyclists when I see them coming. If I’m with someone else we move into a single-file formation. It’s not the bikes I worry about when I’m out on the country roads; it’s the morons going 65 MPH on a 45 MPH road.
If we were lucky enough to have bike lanes here I wouldn’t treat them like auxiliary sidewalks and expect everyone else to get out of my way.
June 17th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Hey Snerdie! I was hoping you would weigh in on this and I’m so glad you’re in agreement. For those who don’t know Snerdie, she’s a marathoner with a great blog about her running. Click on her name and check it out.
June 19th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
I’ve been meaning to post a comment, but hadn’t made the time until now…I apologize for the delay, Ms. Steinfeld.
Bicycle lanes are (when available) the primary place for bicyclists to travel. Pedestrians belong on sidewalks or the grassy area next to roadway shoulders.
It’s definitely within reason to expect pedestrians to remain out of the bicycle lane unless there’s impassible obstacles that would prohibit it. It’s also within reason to expect pedestrians to give way for bicyclists in the bicycle lane.
We have the same problem along our half-mile of bicycle lane in Jacksonville. It doesn’t usually bother me since I rarely bicycle in that area of town.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:28 am
I’ve never seen a runner in any of our bike lanes. However, I did have a friend of mine complain to me that there were too many bicycles on the road and that they should use the “bike paths.” I told her the bike paths were hard to use as they were full of people jogging, strolling, roller blading and dog walking.
(It just occurred to me that have just a few marked bike lanes where I live — and they’ve just started popping up. And they are typically in areas people would not be running anyway. That might be one of the reasons they remain free of joggers.)
July 7th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
[...] motorists and cyclists do not currently have to share the road (he’s massively incorrect) and even when cyclists get dedicated bike lanes, they have to deal with assholes. And it’s illegal, not to mention dangerous (for pedestrians and cyclists) to ride on [...]