No state has ever used the Vulnerable Roadway User concept as a legal term, but members of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance wanted it instated for the protection of vulnerable user groups, such as the ones reducing energy consumption and pollution, while also improving their own health and fitness. Used in Europe by planners and safety organizations, the Vulnerable Roadway User Law applies to and protects you when using a bicycle, farm tractor, skateboard, roller skates, roller blades, or scooter on the roadway. Before it was passed, Oregon state law provided only minor consequences for careless driving that seriously injured cyclists or pedestrians. Now, with the Vulnerable Roadway User Law in full effect, reckless drivers suffer enhanced penalties. Depending on the situation, the law mandates either community service and driver-improvement education, or a substantial fine and a mandatory one-year license suspension of the offending motorist.

As a motorist or a cyclist, it is imperative for you to understand and know Oregon’s Safe Passing Law. Under the Safe Passing Law, there is no “specific distance” stated for motorists to adhere to when passing a cyclist; rather, the law leaves discretion up to the motorist, and defines the distance as “sufficient to prevent contact with the person operating the bicycle if the person were to fall into the driver’s lane of traffic.” Overall, the thing to remember is that it is legal for cars and trucks to pass you on a roadway, given there is a “safe distance” and the roadway ahead remains unobstructed.

An often debated situation among cyclists and motorists is ‘the paceline,’ which is when cyclists ride in a single file line, or several abroad as in a ‘peleton’, in order to draft and conserve energy. As a cyclist, the key point for you to know is that pacelines are under the legal blessing of the vehicle code; however, more than two abreast in a paceline is not legal, and thus subject to penalty.