Trespassing on a Public Road
 

Non-motor vehicles are prohibited on the I495 beltway, and for very good reason.

FYI for others interested, this is the Massachusetts beltway, not the D.C. beltway.

Out in the Hinterlands
 

Only when the interstate usurps all the alternatives,
can you ride on the shoulder of freeways.

but you are expected to get off the freeway,
as soon as you have an available side road...

True, but it's not a super majority of the lower 48. West of the Mississippi River, bicycles are allowed on many, many miles of Interstate Highway. In MT, for instance, you can bicycle every inch of them. I've ridden on Interstate Highways in MT, SD, WY, OR and ND. It's not always as bad as one might imagine. Sometimes they are the only way to get between two points. In MT, I-90 replaced U.S. 10, and in some areas that former highway was not kept as a frontage road, so there is no alternative. Some limited access state and U.S. Highways are also open to bicycles.

There are special cases in states where bicycles are prohibited on interstates where they are allowed to access places otherwise inaccessible. Interstate 79 to Neville Island in Pennsylvania is one example I can think of.

I-90 maybe 6-7 miles east of Spearfish, SD. I took it rather than the shoulderless frontage road that had some traffic, which got heavy as you approached town. Biggest concern was crossing one off ramp. SD drivers seem to think turn signals are optional. Simply stopped and waited to make sure the traffic gap was large enough.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8366b690a9.jpg

Can't say I've ever encountered a cyclist on an Interstate Highway. I myself have made use of some State Hwy that look a lot like @indyfabz I-90, on the shoulders, not in the travel lane though.

WRT Interstate Hwys, (the red-and-blue shield ones) In most cases, it's bikes, non-motorized vehicles, and self-propelled equipment are usually not allowed, and it's usually posted at the top of the on-ramp. I'm sure there are exemptions to this in extremely remote / rural areas, but this happened in Mass, and there's nothing remote or rural about Massachusetts.

Several places it's legal on the I15 and I5 here in California-- but as others have stated, only because there's no other way. You can't just hop on any freeway, highway, or turnpike on a bicycle. Nor would any sane person want to.

Not in that part of MA, but there are plenty of remote.rural areas in the western part of the state. I went to high school in Deerfield and have done D2R2 twice. It's a mostly dirt randonee in W. MA and VT. Great ride to raise money to preserve open space in Franklin County.

Despite the rural nature of many parts of the state, there is a good enough network of old roads to get you from place to place without needing to resort to major highway a lot, although you may need to abide dirt. I could hear the banjos playing in the woods of SW MA during this year's St. Alban's, VT to Philly tour.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...830f229e90.jpg

In CO, you can ride on the interstate if there is no parallel alternative within 450' of the interstate, (CRS 42-4-109 (11)).

Here is a CO map showing the prohibited areas as alternating black/yellow: Colorado Bicycle & Byways Map
Note that I-70 is prohibited from Denver to Glenwood Springs, because there is now a recently-completed parallel bike route along I-70.

Oregon allows bicycles on expressways/interstates, except on specific urban freeways in Portland and Medford. I often see loaded and unloaded touring or mountain bikes on the shoulder of OR 22 between Salem and the Sublimity/Stayton, OR area. Couple times saw a paceline of local riders in full roadie kit. Don

In 2005, Cycle Oregon went through the Columbia River Gorge. The 1,5000+ of us used I-84 in places.

In rural Oregon, alternatives to the wide interstate shoulders tend to look like this, Traffic is sparse & locals usually observe the 50 mph limit due to possibility of slow moving farm vehicles. But not all traffic is local. Don

Nice. When I did Cycle Oregon in 2012 we rode through the Oregon "Outback" the first two days. Long stretches with no vehicles.

When I toured across the country with a small group of people we found the motorists in rural IA to be the same way. I attributed it to RAGBRAI raising awareness of cycling and the possibility of slow moving farm vehicles. I remember one incident in particular where two of us were chugging up some short, steep hill in the middle of nowhere IA farm country. The hill was steep enough that you couldn't see what was up ahead. The motorist in the pickup truck behind us waited patiently until we created the hill instead of zooming around us. I'll bet that was because he didn't want to crest the hill and find himself face to face with a giant combine taking up 3/4 of the road width.

It was a "contempt of cop" charge.

" Trooper Scott Grimes said he gave Christensen another chance to leave the highway, but Christensen refused. He then mocked Grimes, leading to his arrest on a charge of trespassing" https://patch.com/massachusetts/beve...ing-bike-i-495

Grimes had already told him twice to get off the highway. It may have been prohibited on I495

If I could go back in time and alter history (apart from the obvious ones, like ensuring Hitler got into art school rather than becoming a rabble-rouser, etc), I would have sat in the room while they were developing the concept of the Interstate system and advocated for a extra, but separate "non-motorized" lane on each side of the highway, incorporated at the time of initial construction, when the cost of adding such lanes would have been minimal. Imagine having the option of being able to pedal throughout the country, relatively quickly and safely, with interstate-level curves, gradients and tunnels. Getting anyone to pay attention to pedal power back in the auto-obsessed 50s would have been a tall order, certainly, but a cyclist can dream...

It seems that some people view their right to do anything they want as an inalienable human right. And some view this as including their right to be unreasonable snots in dealing with authority figures. Cyclists are not immune. Sheesh.

.. For those unfamiliar with the terminology..
 

Oregon Interstates are I 84 , 4+ lanes with a median between them
east/west along Columbia river from Portland,
which crosses I 205 an urban N/S parallel and ends where it Meets I 5 in Portland ..
I 5 is the Major North south dual carriageway connecting Seattle and San Diego

those are the Federal interstates, others are US/ state and county roads...

US 30 passes through town here, ending where it meets US 101,
the north south Pacific coast highway , with stop lights cross walks ,
some wide shoulders for bicycles , places to eat and all the towns to see along the way..

Lots of miles of just 2 lanes..


...

I was riding on Hwy 1 in CA near Watsonville.... there was a short 5 mile stretch that turns into a Freeway.... sign "No Bicycles"... I figured I'd just ride it real fast. Heard a car horn honk behind me and didn't look back. Did it again and I saw it was a CA Highway Patrol so I stopped. Very nice officer, told me to get off at the next exit and go west thru farmlands. Good camping out there at the beach anyway.

A few years ago there was an Australian on ACA's forum arguing that all interstates in the U.S. should be open to bikes. This came on the heels of a fellow countrywoman getting killed by a drunk while riding on a rural Indiana rode in the middle of the night. His premise was that she would still be alive because she would have ridden the interstate if that had been an option. Putting aside the fact that he could not have known that, I suggested that he look at something like the New Jersey Turnpike, Goethels Bridge or BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) (all part of the interstate highway system) on Google Street View and maybe reconsider his position.

You can be arrested for lots of stuff. Generally, police exercise their discretion not to do so for stuff like this, but when you tell them to piss off, that you aren't going to stop doing the illegal thing you are doing, and then proceed to mock them, well, you had it coming.

It's called failing the attitude test.

Have never seen a bicycle on an interstate that I can recall. Assumed it was against the law. Maybe it's a state to state thing. No way I'd ever do it

Special occasions like organized rides o.k. but not just some dude getting his miles in

I know the area. It's absolutely illegal AND nuts to be riding a bike there. MA allows bikes on all but a few state highways, but absolutely not on the interstates.

Don't agree it was a contempt of cop charge--the cop was offering him a break by letting him leave without citation.