Review: Bicycling and the Law
by Bob Mionske, JD

“As Mr. Wells was driving north near Broadway’s intersection with West 74th Street, Miss Thomas was approaching the intersection from the opposite direction. Shortly after noon, near this intersection, something went wrong with Wells’s vehicle and their paths fatefully crossed. Wells los control of the Duryea, and it began to zigzag up the street toward Miss Thomas. The sight of a horseless carriage erratically bearing down on her in a zigzagging path appears to have confused Miss Thomas; Wells’s vehicle collided with her, and Thomas was knocked from her bicycle into the street.”

The first reported automobile collision, Memorial Day, 1896. That’s right, the driver lost control and hit a cyclist. Figures, right?

If something like this happens to you, over a hundred years later, you will want to know your rights under the law. Even if you are never involved in an altercation with a car, and I hope you aren’t, you may run into another situation where being more familiar with cycling laws will help: perhaps you’re getting ticketed by an APD officer and you think you may be in the right (and from what the Chief implied, seems likely). Heck, reading Bicycling and the Law may help you when you’re out for drinks with your four-wheeled friends and are getting a little tired of them bitching about how bikes should be on the sidewalk.

Uniform Vehicle Code Section 11-1202. Every person propelling a vehicle by human power or riding a bicycle shall have all of the rights and all of the duties applicable to the driver of any other vehicle…

Bicycling and the Law is an approachable book, easy to understand. It is filled with plenty of real-world examples and humorous anecdotes that keep the material from getting tedious. If you aren’t already a little familiar with the history of roads and bicycles, you will even come away from this book with a little ammo to use if you’re ever confronted by drivers in conversation, such as casually mentioning the real reason we started to have paved roads in the US (hint: not for cars).

Bob Mionske, the author, is a former Olympic cyclist who then became a lawyer specializing in bicycling law. He also runs a website at BicycleLaw.com where he and other people blog on various bike topics, law and otherwise. Bob was also recently hired to write a legal column for Bicycling Magazine, Road Rights. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon. All of that makes this book even better, as it’s written from our own perspective as people on bikes who have to share the sometimes treacherous roadways with cars. If you want to be sure that you’re on the right side of the law when you’re riding, Bicycling and the Law will prove invaluable.

Bicycling and the Law is available through VeloPress.

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