Utah Bike Laws: An introduction

This series is inspired by the Bike Law 101 column on BikePortland.org. In it, I hope to cover bike-specific laws in Utah (and sometimes Salt Lake City specifically). This week I thought I’d start with the basics, a lot of these seem like no-brainers, but I frequently see cyclists breaking these very important laws.

First, bike lights. By law you are required to have a white headlight, a red tail light (or reflectors) that are visible from 500 feet away, if you’re riding a half hour before sunrise, after sunset or anytime visibility is impaired (41-6a-1114). This is just good sense. Bikes become invisible at night, and while you can see well enough to ride, cars cannot see you. 

Ride in the same direction as traffic (41-6a-1105). This makes sense, and protects you in so many ways. Its annoying to share a bike lane with a cyclist zooming by going the wrong direction, but its downright dangerous to go through an intersection the wrong way. To me, as a driver, this is the last place I'm looking for a cyclist, and the impact of an accident would be worse in head-on collision like this. A bike is a vehicle and must obey all the same laws, including riding on the correct side of the road. 

There seems to be a lot of confusion about the legality of riding your bike on the sidewalk. In fact, it is legal. But there are exclusion zones where doing so is against the law. In Salt Lake, riding on sidewalks is prohibited in the area between North Temple and 500 South and 400 West and 200 East, commonly known as the Central Business District (as defined by Salt Lake City and the Downtown Alliance) (SLC 12.80.160). And according to bikeprovo.org you cannot ride your bike on the sidewalk in Provo on University Avenue between 400 North and 100 South, Center Street between 100 East and 500 West and anywhere that posts notice. Other than that, you may ride on the sidewalk but you must ride at a slower pace and yield to all pedestrians. When overtaking a pedestrian you must make an audible signal (41-6a-1106). A good rule of thumb is to ride about as slow (or as fast) as you would walk. In some places, a 5 mph speed limit exists for bicyclists who ride on sidewalks. (Tip: Don't try riding the 3 mph average walking speed. You may fall over either from lack of balance or falling asleep from the boredom).

And finally, you must always signal before turning right or left or changing lanes (41-6a-804). You do not need to signal continuously if you need your hand to control the bike. Once stopped in a designated turn lane you are not required to signal again before turning (41-6a-1109). Your signal can either use the official hand signals, or just point in the direction you want to go. 






In future posts I plan on writing about drunk biking (not legal!), riding two abreast (and other ways to share the road), aggressive drivers, what to do in an accident and more. Feel free to leave a comment with suggestions that you'd like covered.

You can find all Salt Lake City and Utah bicycle laws in full form on the Bike SLC / Transportation Division website.

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