CHAPTER 11 - Uniform Vehicle Code: Rules of the Road - Pt. 3

ARTICLE XII.OPERATION OF BICYCLES, OTHER HUMAN-POWERED VEHICLES, AND MOPEDS

11-1201.Effect of regulations
(a) It is a misdemeanor for any person to do any act forbidden or fail to perform any act required in this article.
(b) The parent of any child and the guardian of any ward shall not authorize or knowingly permit any such child or ward to violate any of the provisions of this article.

11-1202.Traffic laws apply to persons on bicycles and other human powered vehicles
Every person propelling a vehicle by human power or riding a bicycle shall have all of the rights and all of the duties applicable to the driver of any other vehicle under chapters 10 and 11, except as to special regulations in this article and except as to those provisions which by their nature can have no application.

11-1203.Riding on bicycles
No bicycle shall be used to carry more persons at one time than the number for which it is designed or equipped, except that an adult rider may carry a child securely attached to adult rider in a back pack or sling.

11-1204.Clinging to vehicles
(a) No person riding upon any bicycle, coaster, roller skates, sled or toy vehicle shall attach the same or him- or herself to any (streetcar or) vehicle upon a roadway.
(b) This section shall not prohibit attaching a bicycle trailer or bicycle semitrailer to a bicycle if that trailer or semitrailer has been designed for such attachment.

11-1205.Position on roadway
(a) Any person operating a bicycle or a moped upon a roadway at less than the normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway except under any of the following situations:

  1. When overtaking and passing another bicycle or vehicle proceeding in the same direction.
  2. When preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.
  3. When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions including, but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, parked or moving vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, animals, surface hazards, or substandard width lanes that make it unsafe to continue along the right-hand curb or edge. For purposes of this section, a "substandard width lane" is a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.

(b) Any person operating a bicycle or a moped upon a one-way highway with two or more marked traffic lanes may ride as near the left-hand curb or edge of such roadway as practicable.

11-1206.Riding two abreast
Persons riding bicycles upon a roadway shall not ride more than two abreast except on paths or parts of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles. Persons riding two abreast shall not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic and, on a laned roadway, shall ride within a single lane. (FORMERLY 11-1205(b))

11-1207.Carrying articles
No person operating a bicycle shall carry any package, bundle or article which prevents the use of both hands in the control and operation of the bicycle. A person operating a bicycle shall keep at least one hand on the handlebars at all times.

11-1208.Left turns
(a) A person riding a bicycle or a moped intending to turn left shall follow a course described in 11-601 or in subsection (b).
(b) A person riding a bicycle or a moped intending to turn left shall approach the turn as close as practicable to the right curb or edge of the roadway. After proceeding across the intersecting roadway to the far corner of the curb or intersection of the roadway edges, the bicyclist or moped driver shall stop, as much as practicable out of the way of traffic. After stopping the bicyclist or moped driver shall yield to any traffic proceeding in either direction along the roadway the bicyclist had been using. After yielding, and complying with any official traffic control device or police officer regulating traffic on the highway along which he or she intends to proceed, the bicyclist or moped driver may proceed in the new direction.
(c) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions, the state highway commission and local authorities in their respective jurisdictions may cause official traffic-control devices to be placed and thereby require and direct that a specific course be traveled by turning bicycles or mopeds, and when such devices are so placed, no person shall turn a bicycle or a moped other than as directed and required by such devices.

11-1209.Turn and stop signals
(a) Except as provided in this section, a person riding a bicycle shall comply with 11-604.
(b) A signal of intention to turn right or left when required shall be given continuously during not less than the last 100 feet traveled by the bicycle before turning, and shall be given while the bicycle is stopped waiting to turn. A signal by hand and arm need not be given continuously if the hand is needed in the control or operation of the bicycle.

11-1210.Bicycles and human powered vehicles on sidewalks
(a) A person propelling a bicycle upon and along a sidewalk, or across a roadway upon and along a crosswalk, shall yield the right of way to any pedestrian and shall give audible signal before overtaking and passing such pedestrian.
(b) A person shall not ride a bicycle upon and along a sidewalk, or across a roadway upon and along a crosswalk, where such use of bicycles is prohibited by official traffic-control devices.
(c) A person propelling a vehicle by human power upon and along a sidewalk, or across a roadway upon and along a crosswalk, shall have all the rights and duties applicable to a pedestrian under the same circumstances.

11-1211.Bicycle parking
(a) A person may park a bicycle on a sidewalk unless prohibited or restricted by an official traffic control device.
(b) A bicycle parked on a sidewalk shall not impede the normal and reasonable movement of pedestrian or other traffic.
(c) A bicycle may be parked on the roadway at any angle to the curb or edge of the roadway at any location where parking is allowed.
(d) A bicycle may be parked on the roadway abreast of another bicycle or bicycles near the side of the roadway at any location where parking is allowed.
(e) A person shall not park a bicycle on a roadway in such a manner as to obstruct the movement of a legally parked motor vehicle.
(f) In all other respects, bicycles parked anywhere on a highway shall conform with the provisions of article X regulating the parking of vehicles.

11-1212.Bicycle racing
(a) Bicycle racing on the highways is prohibited by 11-809 except as authorized in this section.
(b) Bicycle racing on a highway shall not be unlawful when a racing event has been approved by state or local authorities on any highway under their respective jurisdictions. Approval of bicycle highway racing events shall be granted only under conditions which assure reasonable safety for all race participants, spectators and other highway users, and which pent unreasonable interference with traffic flow which would seriously inconvenience other highway users.
(c) By agreement with the approving authority, participants in an approved bicycle highway racing event may be exempted from compliance with any traffic laws otherwise applicable thereto, provided that traffic control is adequate to assure the safety of all highway users.

11-1213.Mopeds in bicycle lanes
Upon any roadway where motor vehicles are permitted, a person may drive a moped in any lane designated for the use of bicycles.

11-601.Required position and method of turning
The driver of a vehicle intending to turn shall do so as follows:
(a) Right turns.Both the approach for a right turn and a right turn shall be made as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway.
(b) Left turns.The driver of a vehicle intending to turn left shall approach the turn in the extreme left-hand lane lawfully available to traffic moving in the direction of travel of such vehicle. Whenever practicable the left turn shall be made to the left of the center of the intersection and so as to leave the intersection or other location in the extreme left-hand lane lawfully
available to traffic moving in the same direction as such vehicle on the roadway being entered. (c) The state highway commission and local authorities in their respective jurisdictions may cause official traffic-control devices to be placed and thereby require and direct that a different course from that specified in this section be traveled by turning vehicles and when such devices are so placed no driver shall turn a vehicle other than as directed and required by such devices.
(d) Two-way left turn lanes.Where a special lane for making left turns by drivers proceeding in opposite directions has been indicated by official traffic-control devices:

  1. A left turn shall not be made from any other lane.
  2. A vehicle shall not be driven in the lane except when preparing for or making a left turn from or into the roadway or when preparing for or making a U turn when otherwise permitted by law.

11-604.Turning movements and required signals
(a) No person shall turn a vehicle or move right or left upon a roadway unless and until such movement can be made with reasonable safety nor without giving an appropriate signal in the manner hereinafter provided.
(b) A signal of intention to turn or move right or left when required shall be given continuously during not less than the last 100 feet traveled by the vehicle before turning.
(c) No person shall stop or suddenly decrease the speed of a vehicle without first giving an appropriate signal in the manner provided herein to the driver of any vehicle immediately to the rear when there is opportunity to give such signal.
(d) The signals required on vehicles by 11-605(b) shall not be flashed on one side only on a disabled vehicle, flashed as a courtesy or "do pass" signal to operators of other vehicles approaching from the rear, nor be flashed on one side only of a parked vehicle except as may be necessary for compliance with this section.