Pedal in the City: Know your laws!

pedalcityBicycling is tons of fun, healthy and environmentally friendly. But with bicycling comes responsibility.

Here are highlights of bicycling laws in Utah.

Making sure your bicycle is street legal:

You are required to have a white headlight, red taillight or reflector, and side reflectors, all visible for at least 500 feet (41-6a-1114) any time you ride earlier than a half hour before sunrise, later than a half hour after sunset, or whenever it is otherwise difficult to make out vehicles 1000 feet away (41-6a-1603).

  • You     must have brakes capable of stopping you within 25 feet from a speed     of 10 miles per hour on dry, level, clean pavement (41-6a-1113).
  • You     cannot have a siren or whistle on your bike (41-6a-1113).

Riding With Traffic

Ride in the same direction as traffic (41-6a-1105).

Ride as far to the right as practicable except when (41-6a-1105):

  •     Passing another bike or vehicle
  •     Preparing to turn left
  •     Going     straight through an intersection past a right-turn-only lane
  •     Avoiding unsafe conditions on the right-hand edge of the roadway
  •     Traveling in a lane too narrow to safely ride side-by-side with another vehicle

Ride no more than two abreast and then only if you would not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic (41-6a-1105).

In some instances where a usable off-roadway bike path has been provided, you may be directed by an official traffic control device to use the path rather than the roadway (41-6a-1105)

Read more at:

Bike SLC: http://bikeslc.com/GetInformed/PDF/SaltLakeCityLaws.pdf

Bike Utah: http://bikeutah.org/utah-cycling-laws/