“Bicyclists as Drivers of Vehicles” in all 50 states and D.C.

Dan Gutierrez, 2005

One of the more arduous goals embarked upon by Dan Gutierrez, a traffic cycling educator and veteran advocate for on-road bicycling and the equitable treatment of bicyclists, has been the analysis and collation of all U.S. state laws relating to bicycling.

Gutierrez’s resulting Excel spreadsheet includes a tab “Uniformity & Bicycle Definition” with columns from A to W, such as column E listing those state laws defining a “Bicycle as Vehicle”

What is of interest here is that in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, column P – “Enabling Law (Bicyclists as Drivers of Vehicles)” – defines a person operating a bicycle as a vehicle operator.

An example is the very first state in the list, Alabama, in which the relevant wording below has been highlighted:

Section 32-5A-260 Traffic laws apply to persons riding bicycles.
Every person riding a bicycle upon a roadway shall be granted all of the rights and shall be subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle by this chapter, except as to special regulations in this article and except as to those provisions of this chapter which by their nature can have no application.

The Excel spreadsheet may be downloaded by clicking on the following:

Gutierrez, D – US State Law Equitability Ratings Rev 3-2012-03-17

Note: If the Excel spreadsheet above opens to a different tab from “Uniformity & Bicycle Definition,” which is tab #2 from the left hand side of the sheet, then please do the following:

This takes you to the following tab in the spreadsheet, after which you need to move to column P, as shown:

Note: Please click on either of the above screen captures to enlarge it. Use the back arrow, top left, to return to this page.