BikeWalkNC

North Carolina’s advocate for safe cycling and walking

passing

How to Pass a Bicyclist

On most roads, motor vehicle drivers must move into the next lane to pass safely. [Image credit: i am traffic]
On most roads, motor vehicle drivers must move into the next lane to pass safely. Knowedgeable bicyclists will often ride near the center of a narrow travel lane to encourage this. [Image credit: i am traffic]

 

Motor vehicle drivers pass bicyclists safely countless times every day. When done improperly, however, the results can be tragic. Some drivers say that they are unsure of what to do when they encounter bicyclists on the road ahead. It’s therefore important to increase public awareness of how to pass a bicyclist safely.

Safe passing of a bicyclist on ordinary roads requires following three simple steps:

1. Slow Down.
2. Look and Wait until Safe.
3. Change Lanes to Pass.

Let’s look at each step in detail:

1. Slow Down

Your first responsibility as a driver is to not hit other people who are already in front of you. This means always being prepared to match their speed or stop as required. Slowing down ensures that you’ll have the time you need to fully assess the road and traffic conditions prior to executing a safe pass.  Lower speed also gives you more time to react should conditions change, and greatly reduces the danger you pose to the bicyclist should a collision occur.

If you’re traveling too fast to slow down in time, that means you’re violating the basic speed law. You must always limit your speed so that you can stop within the distance that you can see ahead. This principle is known as assured clear distance ahead. Always choose a safe speed for conditions, and keep your eyes on the road.

Don’t pass bicyclists at high speed; high speed is associated with most sideswipe collisions involving motorists passing bicyclists. Slower speed gives everyone on the road more time to see, think and respond to one another.

2. Look and Wait until Safe

Don’t try to squeeze between a bicyclist and other traffic in the adjacent lane. On the vast majority of roads, travel lanes aren’t wide enough for this to be safe. Attempting to squeeze past a bicyclist in the same lane is the most common cause of car-overtaking-bicycle collisions. You’ll need space in the next lane in order to pass, so look for a safe gap in that traffic and wait as required. If the adjacent lane is for opposite-direction traffic, wait until you have sufficient sight distance to ensure that no traffic will arrive before you can complete the pass.

Some bicyclists will hug the right edge of a narrow travel lane in an effort to stay as far away from other traffic as they can manage. Don’t misinterpret this as an invitation to pass within the same narrow lane; these bicyclists report lots of unsafe same-lane passing of the type that most often results in collisions. Knowledgeable bicyclists will often ride near the center of a narrow lane, or ride two abreast, in order to deter motorists from making the mistake of trying to squeeze by. These cyclists aren’t being rude; they are just driving defensively.

Make sure you can see an adequate distance ahead to ensure oncoming traffic won’t arrive before you finish your pass. State law requires waiting until you have adequate clear sight distance before you pass. The longer the group, the greater distance you’ll need.

§ 20-150.  Limitations on privilege of overtaking and passing.  

(a) The driver of a vehicle shall not drive to the left side of the center of a highway, in overtaking and passing another vehicle proceeding in the same direction, unless such left side is clearly visible and is free of oncoming traffic for a sufficient distance ahead to permit such overtaking and passing to be made in safety.  

(b) The driver of a vehicle shall not overtake and pass another vehicle proceeding in the same direction upon the crest of a grade or upon a curve in the highway where the driver’s view along the highway is obstructed within a distance of 500 feet. …. 

Lastly, don’t pass at an intersection where traffic may enter or cross the passing lane, and don’t attempt to pass a bicyclist immediately before turning right. You may underestimate the bicyclist’s speed and cut the bicyclist off or hit them during your turn. Instead, slow down and merge to the right behind the bicyclist as you approach the turn. It’s better to follow for a few extra seconds than to risk a collision.

3. Change Lanes to Pass

Once you have an adequate gap in traffic in the next lane, move completely into that lane. This will give the bicyclist a safe buffer and the room they need to maneuver for maintaining balance and avoiding surface hazards.

You may ask: “What if there is a solid line indicating a no passing zone?” Passing a bicyclist in a no-passing zone is legal in North Carolina when done safely with no oncoming traffic and adequate sight distance, passing at a distance of at least four feet or moving completely into the next lane. See § 20-150. Limitations on privilege of overtaking and passing.

You may ask: “What if I start to pass and I realize that I’ve misjudged oncoming traffic?” Simple: Press your brake pedal, and slip back behind the bicyclist(s).  No harm, no foul. Worst case: Stop completely, and let everybody sort it out. Stopped vehicles don’t hurt people.

Here’s a video from the Austin (Texas) Police Department that discusses safe passing:

These three steps don’t take much time and effort. In many cases there is no net delay to the motorist; in the worst cases, the delay is rarely longer than that of waiting for a traffic signal. If you experience delays that are longer in North Carolina, we’d like to know about it, so we can better understand the effects of road design and bicycle traffic on your convenience, and consequently support desirable road improvements and/or have an informed discussion about where and when bicyclists may be able to help you pass sooner. Send email to contact@bikewalknc.org to send us the North Carolina road location, time and date of where you first encountered a long delay, and where on the road the delay ended, and we’ll share your information with NCDOT as well.

For more information about safe passing, see the following:

savvylanecontrol

slowdownthengoaround

foot off gas

Safe Passing and Solid Centerlines

Change Lanes to Pass
Graphic by Keri Caffrey

Update: Since the time this article was written, the State Legislature has legalized passing a bicyclist in a no-passing zone when done safely with no oncoming traffic and adequate sight distance, passing at a distance of at least four feet or moving completely into the next lane. See § 20-150. Limitations on privilege of overtaking and passing.

Narrow two-lane state roads are important travel routes for commuting and recreational bicyclists in North Carolina. Every day thousands of motorists pass bicyclists on these roads without incident. When there is little or no shoulder and the travel lane is narrow, competent drivers recognize that there isn’t room to pass within the bicyclist’s lane, and so they wait until the oncoming lane is clear of traffic for an adequate distance before moving into the next lane to pass. In many places where this occurs, a solid yellow centerline is striped to discourage passing of other motor vehicles. Traffic engineers place this striping where there is not adequate distance to safely pass a motor vehicle that is traveling near the maximum posted speed limit. But in the real world, drivers recognize that the distance required to pass a slow moving bicyclist is a small fraction of this distance, and invariably ignore the striping in favor of weighing the safety and convenience of passing under the existing conditions. Drivers routinely cross solid centerlines to pass bicyclists safely, and police routinely ignore this as long as the passing driver does not create a danger for oncoming traffic. Does this mean that it is legal?

Law enforcement officers are often asked this question – and are often uncomfortable responding. In states lacking clarifying language in the traffic laws, police may struggle to find legal support for ignoring solid centerlines when conditions are clearly safe for passing. Some states – Colorado, Maine, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, for example – have traffic laws explicitly allowing drivers to cross a solid centerline to pass a bicyclist under safe conditions. BikeWalk NC recommends that North Carolina adopt similar language. In the meantime, police in NC are in the same position as those in states such as Florida and Texas, where police have turned to the laws that govern driving around disabled vehicles and fallen trees to justify not ticketing prudent drivers. In North Carolina, this is § 20-146 (a)(2):

§ 20-146. Drive on right side of highway; exceptions.
(a) Upon all highways of sufficient width a vehicle shall be driven upon the right half of the highway except as follows:
(1) When overtaking and passing another vehicle proceeding in the same direction under the rules governing such movement;
(2) When an obstruction exists making it necessary to drive to the left of the center of the highway; provided, any person so doing shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles traveling in the proper direction upon the unobstructed portion of the highway within such distance as to constitute an immediate hazard….

N.C. Highway Patrol 1st Sgt. Brian Gilreath provided the following explanation quoted in the 8/19/2014 Citizen-Times:

As long as you don’t affect the movement of oncoming traffic — that’s where common sense comes in — you’re allowed to go left of center to avoid hazards and obstructions in the roadways,” Gilreath said. “Take for example if a farmer drops a bale of hay in the roadway, and you need to go around it. Even though you’re left of center, you have not violated the law. […] An officer would have a hard time convincing a judge that you’re supposed to ride behind a bicyclist for 10-15 miles…. [Citizen Times, 8/19/2014]

This aligns with the pragmatic interpretation that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement approved for the Florida Bicycle Law Enforcement Guide:

The prohibition of passing in a no-passing zone does not apply when an obstruction exists making it necessary to drive to the left of the center of the highway [§316.0875(3)]. Thus, when a cyclist is traveling so slowly as to constitute an “obstruction,” a motorist may cross the center line in a no-passing zone to pass the cyclist if the way is clear to do so, i.e., when it can be seen that any oncoming traffic is far enough ahead that the motorist could finish passing before coming within 200 feet of an oncoming vehicle.

Police in Austin Texas, a state with similar passing laws, produced a video showing how to pass bicyclists by waiting until it is safe to cross a solid centerline.

AustinPolicePassing

 

BikeWalk NC hopes that other police officers in NC will leverage this interpretation of § 20-146 so that they can have more practical and meaningful discussions about safe passing techniques on narrow roads by focusing on traffic conditions and sight distances. However, explicit clarifying language in the passing law is preferred for bicyclists, tractor drivers, and other slow moving vehicle operators, because such users don’t want to be framed as “obstructions.” Slow moving vehicles are legitimate traffic, and in some cases, bicyclists aren’t slow-moving. A more nuanced, realistic alternative is needed for North Carolina’s one-size-fits-all no-passing-zone law.

Safer Passing

BikeWalk NC has adopted a position on the subject of reducing unsafe behavior by motorists passing cyclists and related legislation.

Summary: There is concern that motor vehicle drivers often fail to stay at adequate safe distance when passing bicyclists, especially when traveling at high speeds. In response, some states have changed passing laws to require greater passing distance, but such laws are seldom enforced, and police often express skepticism about the legality of crossing a solid yellow line to pass bicyclists on narrow roads. Furthermore, experiences in other states indicate that legislative efforts to place greater constraints on motorists’ passing maneuvers bring the risk of adding onerous new legal constraints on where bicyclists may ride. NC currently has some of the best bicycling laws in the country in terms of allowing bicyclists full and equal rights to the use of travel lanes.

BikeWalk NC recommends that the passing law be modified to explicitly allow crossing a solid yellow centerline to pass a vehicle traveling at less than half the posted speed limit when all other legal conditions for safe passing are met, and that this legal change be accompanied by an education campaign about safe passing.

Read the full position paper and supporting materials here.