Originally Posted by
Seattle Forrest
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.
If you're passing a car with a car at less than 3', it's likely to be unsafe, even if a law doesn't specifically mention that 3' figure.
Also the Austin, TX law 3' passing law does cover motor vehicles -- motorcycles, people exposed riding tractors, etc. California law is likely different in some ways.
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.
Not sure about most, but certainly some. Texas has no laws that say either way, but the local PDs, courts, DPS, etc. seem to waffle back and forth on it.
My state apparently doesn't recognize drunken bicycling as a crime.
Mine neither, but public intoxication and reckless driving are always options.
Nor do you pay taxes and registration fees on it.
You pay sales tax on it when you buy it, if your state has a sales tax. Some areas require registration.
When was the last time you brought your bike in to have an emissions test?
Electric cars don't have emissions tests done either.
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)
I don't think this is actually codified in law most of the time, being more of a practical matter. It likely applies to cars too, it's just that it applies a whole lot less often, since signaling is usually done with a very easily reached lever. If it's a super bumpy road and an antique car without signals, I'll bet it's pretty easy to argue that doing hand signals would be dangerous ...
Cyclists can wear headphones, which is illegal for a driver of a car.
Varies from state to state. I can't remember which state it was, but I seem to recall one that made it illegal to bike with headphones, but not drive with headphones. (I may be wrong about that.)
"Same rules" is patently false, and isn't much more nuanced than "a whale is a fish."
Most of the rules are the same, and when they're not there's generally a good reason for it (emissions tests on a bicycle would be silly, for example. Insurance less so, but it's still not as important as with a car.)
For every rule that you can find that is different between bikes and cars, there's ten that are the same. So "same rules" certainly isn't 100% true -- but it's not patently false either. But it's just a bumper sticker, there's not room to expand on all the exceptions.