On A Bicycle

In Ohio a bicycle is a vehicle, and that single fact decides most of what follows. The traffic chapter that governs cars governs a bicycle whenever it is operated on any highway or on any path set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles. Rights that belong to a driver belong to a rider, and so do the duties.

• §ORC 4511.52
• §ORC 4511.01

• The applicable sections of the traffic and equipment chapters apply whenever a bicycle or electric bicycle is operated on a highway, or on a path set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles.
• A rider who violates one of them may be issued a ticket, citation or summons in the same manner as the operator of a motor vehicle would be for the same violation.
• A person who commits such a violation while operating a bicycle or electric bicycle shall not have points assessed against a driver's licence, commercial driver's licence, temporary instruction permit or probationary licence under 4510.036.

• §ORC 4511.52
• §ORC 4510.036

It also means an OVI reaches a bicycle. The OVI section speaks to operating any vehicle, and a bicycle is one. What 4511.52 does is fix where the chapter reaches, which is a highway or a path set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles, rather than everywhere a bicycle can be pushed.

• §ORC 4511.19
• §ORC 4511.52
• §ORC 4511.01

Where on the road is the argument that actually happens at the roadside. The rule is as near to the right side of the roadway as practicable, and the word practicable is carrying the whole sentence. It is not as far right as possible, and the statute then lists the situations where riding far right is not practicable at all.

• §ORC 4511.55

• When passing, or when preparing to turn left.
• When avoiding an object, a parked car, a moving vehicle, a pedestrian, an animal, a surface hazard or another hazard.
• When the travel lane is too narrow for a bicycle and another vehicle to travel safely side by side within it.
• Due care is still owed when passing a standing vehicle or one going the same way, and the traffic rules applicable to vehicles still apply throughout.

• §ORC 4511.55

Lights are their own section and their own numbers. At the times the lighted lights section specifies, a bicycle carries a lamp mounted on the front emitting a white light visible from at least five hundred feet to the front and three hundred feet to the sides. On the rear it carries a red reflector, and a lamp emitting either a flashing or a steady red light visible from five hundred feet to the rear is used in addition to that reflector.

• §ORC 4511.56
• §ORC 4513.03

One rule in this area runs the other way, at drivers rather than at riders. Where a motor vehicle overtakes and passes a bicycle or electric bicycle, three feet or greater is a safe passing distance under the overtaking section. A violation of it is a minor misdemeanour, which is the same degree most of the bicycle equipment violations carry.

• §ORC 4511.27
• §ORC 2929.28

A freeway is a separate prohibition again. A bicycle may not occupy space within the limits of the right of way of a freeway, except on a facility that is separated from the roadway and shoulders of the freeway and is designed and marked for bicycle use. That is why a path running beside a freeway can be lawful while the shoulder ten feet away is not.

• §ORC 4511.051

Electric bicycles sit inside all of this and add a class system on top. A manufacturer or distributor permanently affixes a label naming the class, the top assisted speed and the motor wattage, and the class then decides path access: class one and class two are permitted on paths set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles and on shared use paths unless a local authority prohibits it, while class three is not, unless the path is within or adjacent to a highway or a local authority authorises it.

• §ORC 4511.522
• §ORC 4511.52

Riding on a sidewalk is largely left to local authorities, so the answer changes between cities and is not in the state sections above. Whether a particular path is one set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles, and whether a lane was too narrow to share, are fact questions. The reflector distances and the approval requirements sit in the lamp section itself. Motorised bicycles are governed by a different section from electric bicycles and the two are often confused. Age and helmet requirements attaching to a class three electric bicycle are their own provisions and are not stated here. Whether the points carve out reaches a particular conviction through some other statute is a question for a licensed Ohio attorney.

• §ORC 4511.52
• §ORC 4511.56
• §ORC 4511.522