Maine’s highest court recently sent an important reminder to the public that Maine law affords bicyclists extensive freedom to choose where to safely ride while also calling on the Maine Legislature to improve the text of the “riding to the right” statute (Section 2063 of the Maine Motor Vehicle and Traffic Code).
In State v. Ray, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court vacated a trial court decision against Mr. Christopher Ray, an experienced cyclist from Cumberland, who was wrongly ticketed by a law enforcement officer for allegedly violating the statute. As the court made clear in its decision, “because the statute leaves it entirely up to a cyclist to determine how far to the right it is safe to ride, it becomes unenforceable against a cyclist who claims it would have been unsafe to have ridden farther to the right.” ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrew Zarro is executive director of the Bicycle Coalition of Maine.
This holding was a powerful affirmation of something we at the Bicycle Coalition of Maine have said for years: cyclists deserve the right to make safety-based decisions about where and how they ride.
In addition to the holding that the statute cannot be enforced against bicyclists who have made a safety determination not to ride to the far right, the court also affirmed a prior opinion that unambiguously held that the “riding to the right” requirement is not triggered unless bicyclists are riding less than the normal speed of traffic for that time and place. For example, if a […]
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