Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The Law is Literal

Ordinarily, bike lanes disappear through intersections, as do the dotted lines going down the center of the road.

A Portland cyclist was pedaling along in a bike lane, when she approached such an intersection and a motorist made a last minute decision to take a right turn, thus causing a collision with the bike.

The driver was charged with "failure to yield to a rider on a bicycle lane", but a local judge dismissed the charge because there were no painted bike lanes at this particular point.

Though they might want to consider changing the charge in future incidents, one might be happy that Portland Police aren't going to make a major adjustments. Otherwise, their lineless intersections could all just become big free-for-alls.
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