Originally Posted by
John Forester
Provide evidence as to which states retained laws pertaining to bike lanes or bike paths while changing from mandatory statement to permissive use statements. As I have indicated, the case of shoulders is different, because of the interpretation that cyclists were prohibited from using shoulders.
South Carolina repealed its mandatory sidepath use law, but replaced it with a mandatory bike lane use law, which mentions that recreational sidepaths are optional, not mandatory for use.
Interestingly, South Carolina's new mandatory bike lane use law provided the model (word for word) for HB1451 in North Carolina, which would create a new mandatory bike lane use law here. Bikeway proponents in SC were so enthusiastic about the change in SC law (no longer being required to operate on sidepaths) that the sponsor of HB1451 in NC apparently assumed that copying the new SC law would be equivalent to adopting best practices.
NC has never had a state law mandating sidepath or bike lane use.