On Mon, 18 Feb 2019 18:06:31 -0800, "Mark J."
wrote:

On 2/18/2019 3:36 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Monday, February 18, 2019 at 2:23:19 PM UTC-8, Andre Jute wrote:
On Monday, February 18, 2019 at 9:46:45 PM UTC, AMuzi wrote:
On 2/18/2019 3:12 PM, jbeattie wrote:
Why allow bikes on roads in the first place? They're dangerous!

Why allow people to ride on devices with top speeds in excess of 70mph with no license, no training and no supervision!

Bicycles should have airbags, collision avoidance systems, back-up cameras and ABS! They should be subject to rigorous regulation with mandatory licensing, registration and driver-training -- and mandatory insurance. With high limits! Bicycles are a terror! https://www.theguardian.com/environm...d-in-the-press

To quote Punch Magazine:

"Every cyclist to be presumed in all legal proceedings to be a reckless idiot, and on the wrong side of the road, unless he can bring conclusive evidence to the contrary.

and

Nobody to cycle without a license, issued by the Governor of Newgate, after a fortnight’s strict examination (on bread and water) in elementary mechanics, advanced hydrostatics and riding on the head down an inclined plane.

and

When a cyclist on any road sees, or has reason to believe that he might see if he chose to look, any horse, cart, carriage, gig or other vehicle, or any pedestrian approaching, he (or she) to instantly dismount, run the machine into the nearest ditch, and kneel in a humble and supplicating attitude till said horse, cart &c., has got at least a mile away."


Your bike privilege is showing. You've got some bike-splaining to do!

-- Jay Beattie.


*ahem* the Paved Roads movement was instigated by CTC
(England) and LAW (USA), so who's the interloper on whose
roads again?

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Chalo once made the killer point that cyclists are the predominant form of transport on the roads because the cyclist does not need the permission of an official license for either himself or his bike, whereas a motorist needs a license both for himself and for his car. That is possibly a reflection of who was originally behind the paved roads.

Andre Jute
A little history will usually supply the answer

The ancient Mesopotamians? Which paved roads? The early Good Roads movement in the US was animated by bicyclists, but the real road building was for cars -- funded by license and registration fees and then gas taxes. We bicyclists love to take credit for paved roads, but that's basically wishful thinking. For a history of the Oregon Movement: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc...=rep1&type=pdf

We also have no constitutional right to ride on the roads, nor is it in the Bible or based on the "rights of man" or "natural rights" (whatever those might be). A local legislature could just say "No bikes . . . too annoying. Thank you. Come again." Check your bike privilege.

The reference looks very interesting (history of Oregon Good Roads
movement). But as to rights to the road, I thought I had read on RBT
some years back about there being some basis in English common law.

A quick google found this:
https://publications.parliament.uk/p...04/jones07.htm

I'll admit I didn't read carefully enough to see what main point it was
discussing, it may be something about easements, but in it I found:

"In Rankine, The Law of Land, Ownership in Scotland, 4th ed. (1909), p.
325 it is stated that the definition of a highway in English law as "a
right of passage in general to all the King's subjects" applies also to
Scotland."

Now, granted, this is to /people/, not modes of conveyance, but it may
be the background that is implicit for us (but you're the lawyer).

Mark J.

I'm not a lawyer but from my reading of several state's laws it
appears that the basis is that a bicycle is classified as a vehicle
and vehicles have the right to use most roads although that right may
be subject to a number of circumstances. For example, a farm wagon is
a vehicle but that doesn't mean you can drive it down a major city
street, at high noon, or as is quite often found I believe, neither
can you ride your bicycle on many limited access, high speed,
highways.

--
Cheers,
John B.