Feature
April
14
Following the Laws of Safety
by Jamie Ainsworth
Whether you are driving a motor vehicle, riding a bicycle or walking, the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission advises everyone to obey the traffic laws that are designed to keep you and others on the road safe.
A total of 824 people were killed in crashes in Louisiana in 2009, of which 109 were pedestrians and 12 were bicycle riders. Over the years, the Louisiana Legislature has passed a number of laws designed to keep bicyclists and pedestrians safe. One of the more recent laws, named the Colin Goodier Bicycle Protection Act, requires motor vehicle operators to maintain a 3-foot clearance between the vehicle and a bicycle when passing a bike. The law was named for Goodier, a young physician, who was hit by a truck and killed on River Road in Baton Rouge in 2008 while training for a triathlon.
“Together, bicycle riders and pedestrians accounted for almost 15 percent of all traffic deaths in Louisiana in 2009,” said Lt. Col. John LeBlanc, executive director of the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission. “Many of the deaths occurred because someone was not obeying a law, was inattentive or was under the influence of alcohol. If everyone followed the rules, we would have far fewer deaths involving pedestrians and bicyclists.”
The following are a number of laws and common-sense practices designed to keep bike riders and pedestrians safe.
- Every person riding a bicycle on a highway has all the rights and is subject to all the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle.
- Bike riders should give appropriate hand signals when turning, stopping or decreasing speed.
- Every person operating a bike on a roadway must ride as near to the right side of the roadway as possible.
- Persons riding bikes on a roadway must not ride more than two abreast, except on paths or parts of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles.
- Whenever a usable path for bicycles has been provided adjacent to a roadway, bike riders are required to use the path and should not use the roadway.
- All bike riders should wear an approved helmet. Children under the age of 12 are required to wear an approved helmet.
- Where sidewalks are provided, it is unlawful for a pedestrian to walk on an adjacent highway.
- Where sidewalks are not provided, any pedestrian walking along a highway should, when possible, walk only on the left side of the highway or its shoulder, facing traffic, which may approach from the opposite direction.
