Posted: Monday, September 22, 2008 12:00 am
Since Jan. 1 Oregon has had a law on the safe passing of people on bicycles by motor vehicles. It might be a good idea to refresh ourselves on what the law says.
It's a good idea in the mid-valley now because of the apparently growing interest in bike commuting in order to save on gas and make the world a little greener. (Whether this interest in a greener world outlasts the pleasant weather of late summer we shall see in time.)
The law is found at Chapter 811.065 of the Oregon Revised Statutes. When it was being considered in the 2007 legislature, there was talk of requiring motor vehicles to give cyclists at least three feet of clearance when passing. But that proved too rigid, apparently, and hard to enforce.
As it was enacted, the law says that drivers must not pass cyclists so close that they would run over them if the cyclists fell into the driving lane. For the most part, that translates to five or six feet of clearance from where the cyclists are riding.
The law does not apply when the cyclists are in a designated bike lane, which seems a little strange since a white line on the pavement provides no more physical protection or separation than no line at all.
The law also does not apply if the motor vehicle goes slower than 35 miles an hour.
What the law requires is what common sense and courtesy have called for all along. If we see someone on a bike ahead of us, we have to take the same kind of care as we would if a pedestrian was there. In such a situation courteous drivers will slow down and give the fellow traveler as wide a berth as prudence demands.
The new law says that unsafe passing of a bicyclist is a Class B traffic infraction, something that in Albany city court carries a base fine of $242, which can be reduced to $203. Nobody wants anybody to get a ticket or a fine. The way to avoid either is to remember prudence and common courtesy, and not to be in so much of a hurry all the time. (hh)