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What is the law regarding the yellow pedestrian crossing signs that also have a bicycle image next to the pedestrian? My car’s driver-assist system notices the pedestrian-only signs, but doesn’t recognize these combined signs. Are they only a Portland thing? —Seth M.
As a regular reader, Seth, you must know I can’t resist a good road signage question. There’s nothing I enjoy more than curling up in the warm glow of a crackling “STALLED VEHICLE AHEAD” sign with a copy of the Federal Highway Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices in one hand and a steaming mug of hot asphalt in the other, so your question is right up my closed-to-thru-traffic alley.
If I’m being pedantic (and aren’t I always?), the law regarding those yellow signs is that there is no law. As the MUTCD will tell you, there are regulatory signs, which require you to do something (stop, yield, do not pass), and warning signs, which merely make you aware of a potential hazard. Your sign is the latter. It means (duh) “bicycle and pedestrian crossing,” and it’s been in use nationwide since 2000, so it’s not just a Portland thing. That said, we have managed to put our own unique spin on it.
The MUTCD calls this sign a “trail crossing,” and it’s generally used to alert motorists to a multiuse path (think Springwater Corridor). For the past decade, however, Portland has been using it to mark a local traffic innovation called a “crossbike.” (Like a crosswalk, but for bikes!) The crossbike lane runs alongside the familiar zebra crossing, and is marked by an extension of the crosswalk’s white stripes painted the now-familiar PBOT green.
Bikes crossing the street can use either the white-striped crosswalk or the green-striped crossbike. If they’re in the crosswalk, they have to either get off and walk the bike or slow to a walking pace, but they’re afforded the same right of way given to pedestrians. In the green-striped crossbike lane, cyclists can ride normally, but they forgo any expectation that motorists will yield.
Just between you and me, however, these are exactly the same rules that apply at normal crosswalks: You’re either in the crosswalk, enjoying the privileges (and leisurely pace) afforded a pedestrian, or in the crossbike, where you have exactly the same rights and responsibilities you’d have on a road without green stripes painted on it. The stripes remind motorists to watch out for bikes, which is good, but they don’t provide special perks for anyone except Sherwin-Williams.
Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.
