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The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office announced bicyclists can now report “3 Foot Rule” violations and other bicycle-related complaints via an online reporting system.
The rule prohibits the driver of a motor vehicle from passing a bicycle in the same direction on a highway at a distance of less than 3 feet between the vehicle and bicycle.
Complaints can be made using the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Online Crime Reporting portal at smcsheriff.com.
To be reported, the violations must have occurred in unincorporated parts of the county or the cities the Sheriff’s Office serves, including Woodside, Portola Valley, San Carlos, Half Moon Bay and Millbrae.
I often drive up Alpine Road near the Stanford golf course and I believe I would have a head-on crash with oncoming cars if I left a 3 foot margin between my car the thoughtless bikers who ride out partially in the road. What is the best advice for that situation?
What about the gangs of bikers who pedal through Portola Valley 50 deep and 3 or 4 abreast, often out in the middle of the car lane? Can car drivers report them?
@LGH – in that situation, you have to use that pedal that’s to the left of the accelerator and wait until it’s safe to pass. We all know you don’t have anywhere important to be.
@IN – those “gangs” have every right to be in the lane. Please post a link to the law that says only cars are allowed in a traffic lane.
> I often drive up Alpine Road near the Stanford golf course and I believe I would have a head-on crash with oncoming cars if I left a 3 foot margin between my car the thoughtless bikers who ride out partially in the road. What is the best advice for that situation?
Slow down. Wait your turn. Don’t be a thoughtless driver. The cyclist is not thoughtless, but your racism is clear.
You are not allowed to pass someone in front of you when doing so would put them in danger or otherwise be illegal. No matter what form of vehicle they are in. Passing without adequate clearance is both.
> often out in the middle of the car lane?
There is no such thing as a “car lane”. It is a lane on the road. Bicyclists are entitled to use all of it when they deem it necessary per California vehicle code. Recommended reading: https://www.calbike.org/go_for_a_ride/california_bicycle_laws/
The comment above about Alpine is so myopic and ridiculous. You could treat the cyclist like a human that deserves to live, pays taxes, and has a legal right to be there, use your BRAKES to slow down behind them and wait to pass safely when there is room and you can see. If the cyclist were a car would you be asking this question? No!
No amount of time you could possibly be stuck traveling slower than you prefer to be traveling behind that cyclist is WORTH risking that person’s life. Your inconvenience is not worth their life. What it wrong with you?
You’re not that important. Be kind to your neighbors. They’re riding on the road because that’s where bikes travel you nitwit.
Additionally When they ride super close to the right it increases the likelihood of a driver passing
Dangerously close and hit them because many drivers don’t really know how to judge where the passenger side of their car is. Cyclists are the ones getting hit and killed. Maybe if you acted like you gave a damn about their safety and passed safely collectively they would feel safe to ride farther to the right, but thousands and thousands of on board camera videos of cyclist and the crazy high rate of cyclist getting run over by cars who were in the wrong in this country have proven we need to ride in a way that prioritizes getting home safely. Be kind friends
To the person complaining about the “gangs of bikes” really? Other than mildly inconveniencing you by making you 10 seconds slower to the upcoming intersection what harm are they doing?
Please tell me about how Dangerous gangs of bicycles are and cite the statistics of deaths caused by a group of cyclists next to the statistics of cyclists killed by cars every year in the US. I’ll wait.
Please also do some performative mental gymnastics and tell me about how your tesla and the cobalt mines to build the batteries in it are SAVING THE PLANET when really you should get a bike and ride to work.
Fantastic law. Drivers who violate CVC by close-passing should be held accountable.
And to all the NIMBYs who feel the immediate urge to point the finger at cyclists who violate CVC, please call the police on them, just as you would call the police on a drunk driver, someone speeding in a school zone, someone texting and driving, etc. It’s their job to enforce the law, not yours.
And whatever you do, don’t put the cyclists’ lives at risk with your 4000 lb death machine just to prove a point.
> I would have a head-on crash with oncoming cars if I left a 3 foot margin between my car the thoughtless bikers who ride out partially in the road. What is the best advice for that situation?
Little driver’s ed refresher will provide an incredibly simple solution to this seemingly intractable problem:
1) Cyclists can legally (and ethically) ride “partially in the road” in a variety of circumstances.
2) If you find yourself momentarily unable to make a safe pass at the legally mandated distance, use the pedal to the left of the accelerator to slow down and wait until you can. Fortunately cars are not set to a fixed speed and can easily do this.
If you have time to comment on this article, you are not too busy to drive safely and courteously on suburban surface streets.
I see cyclists violating traffic laws daily, not stopping at stop signs, going through red lights, riding on the sidewalk and darting into traffic lanes without signaling. These are things drivers should be able to report as well. I am curious what is the point of having the ability to report this? It will be a they said one thing and the driver said another and no tickets can be issued unless law enforcement witnesses the infraction.
“those “gangs” have every right to be in the lane. Please post a link to the law that says only cars are allowed in a traffic lane.”
They’re allowed in the lane, but they’re NOT allowed to obstruct the normal flow of traffic. Meaning they don’t get to take up the entire lane unless they are travelling the speed limit.
From an article in the Mercury News: “If four or five bicyclists are riding abreast to the point that cars are forced to go around them, it’s certainly dangerous and illegal. The bicyclists could be cited for violating CVC Section 21202 or impeding traffic (check CVC 22400). Bike riders going slower than traffic also are supposed to ride in the same direction as traffic (with some exceptions) and stay in designated bike lanes where bike lanes are present.”
If bikers are riding 3 or 4 abreast, and in a car lane as opposed to in a bike lane, and they are traveling slower than the speed limit, because it is CVC offense to cross into oncoming traffic lanes with a car, the bicyclists can be cited for impeding traffic and also under CVC 21202.
What strikes me as funny, and typical of the MP bike crowd is that one car driver has been accused of being racist (where did that even come from?) and in a great show of virtue signaling, one driver was accused of destroying Mother Gaia by driving a Tesla (cobalt mining, etc). I suppose if we had a rabid pedestrian on the thread, they might take the opportunity to jump in and one-up the bikers by deriding their metal and rubber death machines that mow down walkers (think SF bike crashes-yes, it happens!).
I just think it would be better if bikers rode one or two abreast (permitted by CVC) as far to the right side of the road as possible or in a bike lane, and for both cars and bikers to show respect to each other.
Nothing good will come from this. While cars are identifiable by licence plate, bicyclist have no such identifier. The three foot rule is a well meaning but poorly written law. Drivers, per the vehicle code, are still not allowed to impinge on a double yellow. That means to stay in compliance with both laws a driver cannot pass a bicyclist on many of the streets and roads where there are issues.
While there are many bicyclists that are considerate and share the road well, there are an uncountable many that ignore traffic conventions as others have mentioned.
@ln if you fail to see the racism in @LHG’s “the thoughtless bikers” comment, go back and reread it. It exposes that they harbor utter disdain for anyone on a bicycle as if it is someone riding a bicycle’s responsibility to be thinking about @LHG’s personal satisfaction and convenience above all else, including their own life. Such a blanket statement is never warranted. It’s them taking out their frustration on an entire class of people because they believe they are anonymous here and can behave like an asshole without treating anyone else as human.
> That means to stay in compliance with both laws a driver cannot pass a bicyclist on many of the streets and roads where there are issues.
Yes. Exactly @Matt That is the entire point. We’re all safer for it.
There’s an order of magnitude more drivers behaving “badly” than bicyclists behaving “badly”. Simply because there’s an order of magnitude more drivers than bicyclists on the roads. But when drivers do it, they do it with a multi-ton mass guaranteed to wreak carnage upon anything they choose to collide with.
If you’re going to whine about people’s behavior, at least be smart about it pick the more impactful (pun intended) wrong to point out: drivers. Drivers injure or kill almost 4000 people per year in San Mateo County: https://www.ots.ca.gov/media-and-research/crash-rankings-results/?wpv_view_count=1327&wpv-wpcf-year=2019&wpv-wpcf-city_county=San+Mateo+County&wpv_filter_submit=Submit
Honestly it’s so nuts that anyone would think the ability for folks to report obviously dangerous driving so that the driver faces consequences would be a bad idea. Those people clearly behave badly behind the wheel and are scared of being held accountable for their recklessness. There is so much “whatabout”ism spouted from their corner that’s so shameful, backwards, and dishonest. Their voices have been the loudest for far too long and this new rule will give voice to pedestrians and riders who have been shut out for ages.
@gps: gee, I didn’t realize that bicyclists are now a race. What planet are you living on where this is true?? Are you sure you’re not confusing bicyclists with something else, or do you just like to accuse people of racism to get people riled up?
Perhaps a solution is to:
1) register all bikes for a fee & give them a license plate that must attached to the bike
2) Requite a test & bike “Driver’s license”
It would ensure that Bilkers would:
1) Know the real legal rules
2) Pay a very small part of the costs of new lanes & signage additions
3) Be identifiable for “Bad Acting”
Just a thought! CA needs the $$$!
I like your idea Cybervoter. I’ve wondered for a long time why since bicyclists are expected to follow traffic laws, they’re not required to have a way of identifying them. Hopefully, that won’t be considered “racist” per gps. That has to be one of the stupidest ideas I’ve heard in a long, long time.