Any pathway that is not a roadway and isn’t pedestrians-only should have rules (e.g. keep right except to pass) that apply to everybody who uses it (no one’s mentioned e-bikes yet, but I will). Here in Massachusetts, I’m not aware of any that do.
Be careful out there!
No, it’s not. Check your Florida drivers manuals; drivers manuals usually have a section on other road users nowadays. Ask a cop. You are not allowed to ride on the wrong side of the road. It endangers other cyclists, and it massively endangers yourself, because no one pulling out of a driveway or a parking lot will be looking for you on the wrong side of the road. How do you even get across an intersection? If you get hit no one will care because you’re breaking the law. The Uniform Vehicle Code, used as a template for all 50 states and territories, Canadian provinces/territories and Mexican states/territories is very clear about that. You’re supposed to ride “as far to the right as practicable” (and practicable does no mean “possible”). Yes, you can not do that if there’s debris or something else in the roadway or the state DOT has put a sign on the shoulder or in a construction zone when they’re directing all traffic to the wrong lane. Not otherwise.
And most of the time it’s illegal for adults to ride on sidewalks. That’s why sidewalk “bike paths” really piss me off. They’re dangerous.
Get a copy of John Forester’s “Effective Cycling” or take an Effective Cycling course. Learn to ride properly on the road where you belong. In all states a bicycle is either a vehicle or “has all the rights and responsibilities of a vehicle”. You ride a bike the same way you drive a car. You’re slower on average, but you’re not “blocking traffic”. You are traffic.
I was on a 55 mph road this morning, and I often ride on one. Usually they have shoulders. If they don’t , you ride to the right but not so far right that you can’t be easily seen. Maybe Florida drivers are more psychopathic than Pennsylvania ones, but I doubt it.
If we are on an actual road in Connecticut, cyclists are to travel in the same direction as cars and obey the same laws. Which means if we overtake a slower cyclists we will be passing them on the left (going between them and the curb would be more dangerous).
I don’t think it’s law but anyone on foot should be against traffic if not on a sidewalk. If I’m on foot and see a cyclist I will move off the road because I can see the cars. I hate when a walker or runner holds their line making me look over my shoulder and move out into traffic - it’s so inconsiderate.
Diane
The same as here in Australia, except we drive (and ride) on the left so passing on the right is the acceptable practice. Down here you can’t ride on a footpath unless you’re 12 years or younger or accompanying that age group.
Many paths in Australia are shared paths for use by cyclists and pedestrians where common sense and courtesy comes into play to ensure everyone’s safety. The most dangerous things are those electric bikes and scooters, the riders of which appear to have no knowledge of the etiquette of shared paths. They’re also a massive danger on the roads where it’s actually illegal to use them.
All of which brings to mind the Master Singers “The Highway Code”:
UK New Entry 1966 (105) The Master Singers - The Highway Code - YouTube
Their matching “Weather Forecast” is also nice,
UK New Entry 1966 (363) The Master Singers - Weather Forecast - YouTube
as is the King’s Singers much later “Some Enchanted Wavelengths”
O joy, I’d lost track of “The Highway Code” (Part 1). Thank you. For a while it inspired a friend and me to conduct all our conversations in plainsong.
And MyTube suggests Sellers’ version of “Help” and “A Hard Day’s Night” too. Joy is unconfined in O so many ways.
Actually…I did ask one…a FL state trooper to be exact, stopped by one morning as I passed him going the wrong way in the bike lane while he was getting ready to help cars exit a church parking lot. He agreed that while the bike laws say to follow the traffic laws…the law allows bikers to…
A cyclist may leave a bicycle lane for any of the purposes listed in the law — essentially to avoid any unsafe condition or potential hazard.
Allows the cyclist to use common sense to avoid an unsafe condition. He agreed with me that riding the short distance I needed to in what was technically the wrong direction was avoiding a safe condition. And the Florida Bicycle Association agrees with that as well.
Seeing as idiot drivers have had me off the bike lane (it’s not separated from the lanes there by anything but the white painted line) into the grass multiple times pretty much demonstrates that it’s a potential hazard if I can’t see them to bail when necessary. It’s not like there’s a lot of bikers there anyway at any given time and being able to see the cars and avoid getting run over seems prudent to me…and I would do it anyway even if it was strictly against the law because common sense to me overrides the letter of the law and I would be willing to take that opinion to court if I got a ticket for it…might lose but sometimes judges actually use common sense.
But let’s not let the original topic get sidetracked by our different interpretation…I don’t wear earbuds while cycling and as I said in another reply I either give them a wide berth, pass them at a driveway intersection or whatever…or slow and announce “bike behind you” and see which way they go. I found that saying “bike on your left” tends to confuse walkers/runners and announcing my presence, waiting on them to move, and then respond accordingly works a lot better.
I’m in urban Massachusetts (just inside route 128/95) and there are cases where the right edge of the roadway is simply unsafe for bicyclists. The four-lane roadway that passes the local hospital has essentially no margin between the driving lanes and the curb, so I bicycle (carefully) on the sidewalk going in the same side as the traffic. Many cities and towns rarely clear debris or fix potholes alongside the curb, so I sometimes wind up riding on the sidewalk along a busy road.
Letting your dog off-leash can be really risky, for the dog was well as for people. Was just thinking of this thread today as a dad-cycle with kid seat went by me on the sidewalk, fairly close to me on my left. I could not hear him coming at all, given the traffic noise generated by the nearby FDR Drive. No warning, either. I could easily have veered slightly into his path.
“O joy, I’d lost track of “The Highway Code” (Part 1). Thank you. For a while it inspired a friend and me to conduct all our conversations in plainsong.”
That sounds like a lot of fun.
If you don’t already have it, you should hasten to buy a copy of Sandra Boynton’s “Grunt”. It might be available on streaming services, but the illuminated booklet with the lyrics it comes with is worth having. Out of print but easily found used for around $5.
https://www.powells.com/book/grunt-9780761105947
“I like to think of Grunt as the culmination of a lifetime of joyfully squandering an expensive education on producing works of no apparent usefulness.” – Sandra Boynton
hi alan thx for the info. pls clarify how to find the “hearing control center widget”. thanks
I shall.
[waddayoumean a post must be at least 10 characters???]
Because for anything shorter, chances are one of those little icons to select under the heart symbol does the trick.
In Control Center settings, select the ear icon and add it to the Control Center. Now access the Control Center and select it when you’ve put the AirPods in your ears.
Gosh, I’d sure wish there were a simple Control Center widget I could select like that to just connect/disconnect my AirPods Pro at any time with a simple tap.
I find it interesting that there is an assumption in this thread that everyone can hear. That is not always the case. On mixed use paths, you can’t safely make that assumption.
Well, you can with two taps. Tap the AirPlay-looking control top-right of the Now Playing control top-right, and you can connect the AirPods from there. Even if nothing is playing. (I have my Beats set to auto-connect usually but just switched it to “last connected” for a specific reason so I wanted a way to do this, too.)