I was reminded of this by another thread in which some of you told about having positive experiences riding through construction zones. My experience is kind of the opposite. Two or three times last summer, and just last week for the first time this year, I've been riding through a construction zone in the general travel lane, not holding up traffic, and have been instructed by a flag person to ride in the sidewalk. I always refuse. This last time, I yelled as I went by "I have a right to be in the road", and they yelled back "Not in a construction zone". I've had the same response at least once or twice before.
Now, aside from the fact that it's probably illegal to disobey a flagger, which I'm willing to accept (but will likely keep disobeying anyway), I'm wondering where the flagger gets this idea that bikes should be directed to sidewalks. In none of these cases was the flagger holding up traffic in general, say to let a construction vehicle cross the road. In that case of course I would have followed their instruction and stopped. No, traffic flow was fairly normal; I was simply singled out. And in all cases, either there was no car traffic around me anyway, or we were all going fairly slowly.
It seems unlikely that this would be state or municipal law, although that's possible. I haven't turned up anything searching my own state's
online statutes (Maine). Do you know if your state or municipality has any laws about this?
It seems more likely that either it's the policy of that particular construction company, or maybe just the personal decision of the flagger. I'm mainly interested in finding out who I would inquire of, if I ever decide to pursue this. Any others have experience with this?
Maybe I'll email Bob Mionske...