Originally Posted by
njkayaker
The stickers should say "Same roads, (almost the) same rules"!!
Then, maybe, people should not use bumper stickers as a source of education!
Anyway, there are really only two basic differences in the law: FRAP and the allowance to ride on the shoulders. (I think it's only two: it's not many.)
And the FRAP law is similar to the common "slower traffic stay to the right" law (NC doesn't have a FRAP law).
Well ... "almost the same" rules between bikes and cars is an approximation, sort of like how a whale is a fish, in the sense that they both live under water.
When you say "there are really only two basic differences in the law," this is exactly what I'm getting at. You know that isn't true, but ... you're letting the VC slogan fool you, at least momentarily. And that confusion is not a good thing for anybody.
There's FRAP (which, sure, is similar to my state's law about slow vehicles having to pull out when a line builds up behidn them) and an allowance to ride on shoulders. Lane splitting is legal in some places (eg California), but not for cars. My bike is illegal on many public roadways that my car is obviously welcome on. Drivers have to pass each other safely, but don't have to open a three-foot gap when they pass one of those "car" contraptions out on the road. In most states, you can blow through a stop light on your bike, be ticketed by the police, and the law forbids this to affect your driving status: no license points, no change in your "safe driver" pool. My state apparently doesn't recognize drunken bicycling as a crime.
Bike drivers don't need licenses. The law doesn't require
liability insurance for cyclists. You don't need working brake lights to drive your bike, or to apply for your license. Nor do you pay taxes and registration fees on it. When was the last time you brought your bike in to have an emissions test?
A 12 year old can operate a bike, but not a car. It's illegal for cars to drive on the sidewalk - although I see this sometimes in pursuit of a good parking spot. A cyclist is not required to signal a turn in most states, if they feel that it would be dangerous to take a hand off the bars ( stability, access to brakes, whatever ), while cars drivers have no trump card. Cyclists can wear headphones, which is illegal for a driver of a car.
Those are the differences that jump to mind, and we're not even talking about Idaho stops. If I did some research, I could grow that list tenfold ... but fish are vertebrates and whales are mammals; bikes and cars share a "living" space, but are vastly different species. "Same rules" is patently false, and isn't much more nuanced than "a whale is a fish."