Originally Posted by
njkayaker
Your instinct is unnatural.
No, you ride your bike in the roadway (including bike lanes) like you drive your car (as the law requires). In America, we pass on the left.
On a MUP, bicycles are not vehicles (they are pedestrians) and pedestrians and cyclists travel on the right side of the path and, in America, we pass on the left.
In all cases, you keep to the right when there is opposing traffic.
That's probably correct in most places, however, not in Rhode Island. We do not have any MUPs we have bike paths, and the pedestrians walk on the left facing the bikes that are coming at then. Just like the roads where they walk on the left facing traffic.
The peds should step to the left off the pavement, bikes have the right of way (only on the bike paths). Most people don't believe it, but there are plenty of signs on the ground and on posts, and on the bike path maps of Rhode Island. There are links to this on the state bike web site BIKERI. That would lead me to think, it's possible there is another state doing the same thing. Maybe not, I'm not looking up every state. Even people that live in R.I. and walk or ride the paths every day, don't believe it. Even when one shows them a sign. The pedestrians have the right of way on the sidewalk here. Having the right of way means nothing in the real world. Peds have the right of way in a crosswalk, not the road here. I just go by the laws posted on the internet, for my state only.
Did you check every state?