
Over $78 million in verdicts and settlements in 19 years.
Oregon Bike Law
The Basics
Oregon Bicycle Manual (PDF)
You have a right to ride your bicycle on Oregon's roads, streets and highways. In Oregon, a bicycle is legally considered to be a vehicle. When riding your bicycle on a road, you have the same rights and duties as people who are driving cars. With a few exceptions, the rules of the road for people driving apply to you.
- Oregon Bicycle Helmet Law Bike helmets are required by Oregon law for bicycle riders who are under 16 years old.
- Bicycles always must yield to pedestrians.
- Oregon's new Stop as Yield law (PDF): A person riding a bicycle who is approaching an intersection where traffic is controlled by a stop sign or a flashing red light may, without violating the law (ORS 811.265), do any of the following without stopping if the person slows the bicycle to a safe speed and yields to other traffic: (a) Proceed through the intersection. (b) Make a right or left turn onto a two-way street. (c) Make a right or left turn onto a one-way street in the direction of traffic upon the one-way street.
- Oregon Safe Passage updated law 2024 when overtaking bicycles, Brochure (PDF)
- Oregon Pedestrian, Bicycle and Driver Rules handbook (PDF)
- Oregon Safe Passage Law
Safe Passage Law: ODOT would like to remind drivers to give bicyclists extra room when passing, per ORS 811.065โ. At speeds greater than 35 mph, you may only pass a bicycle traveling in your lane if you have enough distance to prevent contact with the bicyclist if they were to fall. The same rules for passing other vehicles apply to bicycles. You may cross the center line if it is safe and legal to do so. Return to your lane as soon as it is safe to do so. If you cannot pass safely, you must slow down and remain behind the bicycle until it is safe to pass.
This Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) PSA helps explain the 2024 update to the Oregon Safe Passage Law
Oregon Bike Law Sources
- Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 814 โ
Pedestrians; Passengers; Livestock; Motorized Wheelchairs; Vehicles With Fewer Than Four Wheels 2023 EDITION
PEDESTRIANS; MOTORCYCLES; BICYCLES; SCOOTERS
OREGON VEHICLE CODE - Oregon Revised StatutesChapter 811 โ Rules of the Road for Drivers 2023 EDITION DUTIES TO PEDESTRIANS AND BICYCLES (*some 2024 changes have been posted but not implemented on this page such as the safe passage law which updated in January 2024)
- Oregon Bike and Pedestrian Resources
- Oregon State Bicycle Map (PDF)
- Order These and other Free Bicycle Law Resources From Oregon Department of Transportation - these are Printed, and most of these come in a packet including several of the same item. The Oregon Bicycle Manual is a large book but the Pedestrian, Bicycle and Driver Rules is a smaller pamphlet that can fit in a pocket or tuck away in your bike bag; the others are available as simple cards for quick glances, or small brochures which have a little bit more quick help items. (must be an Oregon resident; they have English and Spanish language versions and a lot more offerings and special fun activities and and special publications for kids)
- Oregon Bicycle Manual Stock #330430
- Pedestrian, Bicycle and Driver Rules handbook Stock #330433
- Field Guide to Cycling in Oregon Stock #330587
- Stop as Yield Brochure Stock #330594 / Card Stock #330604
- Bike Safe Passage Brochure Stock #330565
Allowing rolling stops on bicycles doesn't cause risky road behavior, study finds
Allowing cyclists to roll through stop signs doesn't lead to riskier road behavior, according to a
new study from researchers at Oregon State University.
Another interesting new Department of Transportation study found (published February 2023), that protected bike lanes, separated bike lanes, buffered bike lanes reduce bicycle crashes and conflicts with motor vehicles:
Separated bike lanes show a clear trend...a transportation agency [installing one] can expect to see a reduction in bicycle crashes.
Bicycle vs. Auto Accidents - What is the bicycle 'right of way?'
Road markings have frequently been problematic both for the designers and users of the road following the markings (car and truck drivers, motorcycle and bicycle riders).
Some Oregon Bike Law History and Milestones
The below goes through the saga from December 2009 when a Portland Judge ruled that a bike lane didn't exist in a Portland Intersection. (Yes, the bike lane somehow ended in the intersection, even if it existed before and after the intersection). Through 2018 when a Deschutes County Circuit Court judge ruled a cyclist hit and killed in an intersection by a FedEx truck driver did not have the protection of a bike lane. To the Oregon Legislature April 16, 2019 Oregon House Bill 2682, the bike lane bill which, "clarifies that bicycle lane continues in and through intersection where markings are interrupted by intersection," approved by its Oregon Legislature Joint Committee On Transportation May 7, 2019 and signed into law by Oregon Governor Kate Brown, effective January 1, 2020.
SE Portland 2009
In June of 2009, the bicycle rider was riding on SE Hawthorne in the bike lane cycling across 10th Avenue when the driver on bicyclist's left admittedly made a last minute decision to right turn and slammed into the bicycle rider, knocking the bicyclist to the ground. The bicycle rider was fortunately wearing a helmet and thus avoided any serious head injury when her head impacted into the pavement with this unexpected collision. Portland police responded to the accident scene and cited the car driver for Failing to Yield to a Bicyclist in a Bike Lane (ORS 811.050).
The traffic citation case went to trial on December 21, 2009, where the Portland traffic court judge found the driver not guilty because as the law is written, the driver is guilty when, “the person does not yield the right of way to a person operating a bicycle, electric assisted bicycle, electric personal assistive mobility device, moped, motor assisted scooter or motorized wheelchair upon a bicycle lane.”
The Portland traffic court judge concluded that because the painted indicators of the bike lane cease in the intersection, that the bicycle lane also ceases to exist within the intersection, and with it any right that the cyclist may have. The Portland traffic court judge claimed to be, "not interpreting the law, but reading it and ruling with it as it was written." A surprising ruling especially considering the driver admitted to not looking before she turned and given that the Portland Police also cited the driver at the scene of the accident.
A bicycle lane was defined under Oregon law as:
801.155 "Bicycle lane"
“Bicycle lane” means that part of the highway, adjacent to the roadway, designated by official signs or markings for use by persons riding bicycles except as otherwise specifically provided by law. [1983 c.338 ยง23]
The Portland traffic judge's ruling overturned the Portland police officer's citation in the end. Had the officer also charged the driver with ORS 811.060 (Vehicular assault of bicyclist or pedestrian), which covers any unsafe or reckless driving, "in a manner that results in contact between the person's vehicle and a bicycle operated by a person, a person operating a bicycle or a pedestrian," and, "the contact causes physical injury to the person operating a bicycle or the pedestrian;" and is a much more serious charge against an auto driver, but the traffic court judge would not have been able to overturn the citation of the Portland police officers.
Since there is no appeal for an aquittal in Oregon traffic court, the case does not set a binding legal precedent. Civil court was the only next alternative for the bicyclist, which the cyclist decided against even though not physically completely whole from the accident, but well enough to want to move on. If you've ever been seriously injured in an accident, you can understand the bicyclist's decision to put this incident behind her as fighting for justice in court takes a lot out of the injured, even with a skilled trial attorney at their side.
This seemed incredible to nearly everyone, especially the biking community of Portland, particularly in light of the recent additions of the green bike safety boxes and green bike lanes which do in fact continue into the intersection as painted green lanes. These continuing green lanes were put in by the city of Portland not to add bike lanes in intersections, but to make drivers more aware of the bike lane existence due to two tragic fatal right hook auto vs. bicycle accidents resulting from a truck and an SUV turning right into the path of the bicycle in less then a month in 2007. October 11, 2007 on Burnside, the cyclist was only 19 years old and though she had the 'right of way' some witnesses also said she was in the truck driver's "blind spot." And on N. Interstate the second fatality in October 2007, even though many bicyclists would think the bicycle had the 'right of way,' witnesses said, "it was nobody's fault."
The bicycle right hook accidents troubled the cycling community and roadway designers alike resulting eventually in the green bike boxes and extended painted green bike lanes through the right turning lane area of many designated intersections to help auto drivers with the awareness that the bike lanes existed.
Fast Forward 2018, Bend, Oregon
A Deschutes County Circuit Court judge on Tuesday ruled a cyclist hit and killed in an intersection by a FedEx truck did not have the protection of a bike lane [...] Prosecutor Andrew Steiner said many people today do not treat bike lanes like vehicle lanes, though they are. [...] Steiner attempted to make the case that bike lanes continue through intersections, citing Oregon Department of Transportation guidelines for road construction and recent court cases and legislation in Oregon.
Call To Action for the "Bike Lane" Bill
Here is an op-ed from the co-sponsors of this bike lane bill Oregon state representatives Sheri Schouten was state representative for Oregon House District 27, including parts of Beaverton, Raleigh Hills and Bull Mountain and Rob Nosse was state representative for Oregon House District 42, including parts of Southeast and Northeast Portland:
This is madness. To avoid visual confusion, we don't paint every lane line in our intersections. And nobody claims automobile travel lanes don't exist within an intersection. So the failure to acknowledge that bike lanes continue through intersections is both strange and troubling. Now, to correct the confusion, we are co-sponsoring legislation (House Bill 2682) that will explicitly extend this legal protection to cyclists crossing intersections.
April 16, 2019 Oregon House Bill 2682 "clarifies that bicycle lane continues in and through intersection where markings are interrupted by intersection" has been approved by its Oregon Legislature Joint Committee On Transportation. If the bill is becomes law, it will ammend Oregon Revised Statute 801.155:
801.155. 'Bicycle lane' means that part of the highway, adjacent to the roadway, designated by official signs or markings for use by persons riding bicycles except as otherwise specifically provided by law. A bicycle lane exists in an intersection if the bicycle lane is marked on opposite sides of the intersection in the same direction of travel."
May 6, 2019 the Oregon state Senate passed and it went on to be signed into law by Governor Kate Brown effective January 1, 2020.
Oregon lawmakers confirmed Monday that a bike lane still exists when interrupted by an intersection, despite the absence of paint on the roadway. The Oregon Senate voted Monday to clarify the state's definition of a bike lane, adding language that the lane "exists in an intersection if the bicycle lane is marked on opposite sides of the intersection in the same direction of travel."