Driver or Pedestrian?
Question
Michele asked: Are bicyclists required to ride in the lane the same direction as the traffic or do they ride in the lane facing traffic as a pedestrian does?
Answer
Bicyclists are operating vehicles and are required to follow the same rules as other drivers when in the roadway.
s. 316.2065 – Bicycle Regulations
(1) Every person propelling a vehicle by human power has all of the rights and all of the duties applicable to the driver of any other vehicle
When on a sidewalk, bicyclists follow pedestrian rules.
(9) A person propelling a vehicle by human power upon and along a sidewalk, or across a roadway upon and along a crosswalk, has all the rights and duties applicable to a pedestrian under the same circumstances.
Key distinction: a pedestrian walking along a road is not even supposed to be in a lane, unless no sidewalk or shoulder (practical for travel) is available (s. 316.130(3,4), F.S.). No such rule applies to a cyclist traveling along a road.
My friend and her husband got hit by a woman in a car, while they were on their bikes in a crosswalk. No one was injured but their bikes got messed up. The woman who hit them, called the law and my friend and her husband were told they would be ticketed for going the wrong way in the cross walk if they were to press charges against the woman. Obviously being they were in a crosswalk there is no right or wrong way, so was the woman who hit them in the wrong?