BY ROBERT VITALE – THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Jim Cristy’s string of close calls came to a crashing, bruising halt a week ago on Cannon Drive south of Ohio State University.
The North Side resident was riding his bike in the right lane when a car passed on his left and then made a right turn into a parking lot. Christy hit the car’s rear passenger side and was thrown to the street. He bruised his hip and shoulder.
The car never stopped.
Coexistence isn’t always peaceful these days on central Ohio streets, many of which are being re-engineered to accommodate people driving on two wheels and four.
Columbus has created 14 miles of bike lanes on its streets since 2008. The city also has added
pavement markings – “sharrows” – and signs along 37 additional miles to welcome cyclists to the
streets.
But people’s knowledge of the rules of the road hasn’t kept pace with the biking boom.
“There’s a new paradigm,” said Bernice Cage, spokeswoman for the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning
Commission, which monitors traffic of all types. “Motorists aren’t sure where cyclists should be,
and a lot of cyclists don’t know where they should be.”
Annual bike-traffic counts by MORPC show, anecdotally at least, that more people are
pedaling.
The agency counts bike riders several times a year at more than two dozen locations in central
Ohio and says it has seen increases in each of the past six years, particularly during morning rush
hours.
“We look out our window, and we see it,” said Jeff Stephens, who heads the Columbus
Transportation and Pedestrian Commission and runs an advocacy group called Consider Biking. “The
census shows it. We have counts on trails. Bike retailers’ sales are increasing.”
So consider this an avoiding-the-crash course on the laws governing how we roll.
Street or sidewalk?
State law allows bicyclists to ride on the sidewalk, but Columbus says adults must ride in the
street or on trails.
Despite the local rule, nearly half of the bicyclists MORPC counted in September were on
sidewalks.
It might seem more dangerous for bikes to ride among auto traffic, but studies have found that
it’s safer.
Drivers are more attuned to what’s on the road around them than what’s on the sidewalk. People
walk slowly enough for drivers to spot, but faster-moving bicyclists can enter their field of
vision too late.
Share the road
Some cyclists say they don’t like the street signs that remind drivers that bicycles use the
road, too. They say the message reinforces the idea that autos own the road.
According to the law, they don’t.
Columbus requires cyclists to ride as far to the right “as practicable,” but cyclists can use
their judgment. They can use the left lane for turns but can’t ride left of center. They don’t have
to use bike lanes, and they don’t have to ride at the curb.
“If a cyclist hugs the curb, they are easily squeezed off the road and into a wreck by passing
cars,” said Erle Haunn, who rides in Delaware and Morrow counties.
Jamie Fellrath, a cycling instructor who lives in Clintonville, said it’s safest for bicyclists
to ride in the right third of the right lane, not at the curb. The tactic is called “controlling
the lane,” and it tends to keep cars from driving right next to a bike.
Equal rights
Under state and local law, bikes are included under the definition of
vehicle.
That means that drivers must extend the same courtesies to cyclists that they are required to
extend to other motorists: no passing in the same lane, no tailgating, etc.
It also means that bicyclists must follow the same laws. They can ride two abreast in the same
lane, but can’t roll up to an intersection between or beside the vehicles that got there first.
“You should ride your bike the same way that you
should drive your car,” said John Canty, who commutes by bike between Worthington and
Downtown.
Equal responsibilities
If bicycles and cars are viewed equally in the eyes of the law, then the big driving no-no’s
apply to bikes, too.
Cyclists break the law if they ride through stop signs and red lights.
That’s what makes Johanna North nervous.
“I’ve had cyclists breeze through red lights and swerve in front of my car,” the Far East Side
resident said.
The ticket for running a red light – as much as $150 – is the same for bicyclists and
drivers.
According to the State Highway Patrol, about 1,500 bicyclists are injured and about 18 are
killed in Ohio every year.
Setting the pace
“There’s an impression among both drivers and cyclists that there exists something called a
minimum speed limit,” Fellrath said.
A state appeals court ruled against that idea in 2001 by throwing out the case against a cyclist
who had been ticketed for impeding traffic in the Dayton suburb of Trotwood.
Drivers can pass bicyclists just as they’d pass another car. Cyclists aren’t required to move
over to let cars pass, but they can’t pick up speed until they’re passed.
However, if a car or bicycle is going less than half the maximum speed limit, vehicles are
allowed to pass in a no-passing zone by going over the centerline. Drivers cannot pass in the same
lane.
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