The Bicycle Injury Case That Led To Correction Of Illinois Law Settles

Our law firm has settled "Lilly's case," a high profile lawsuit which arose when a pregnant Chicago bicyclist was doored on Halloween, 2012.  Though her injuries were not terribly severe, given her pregnant state at the time and how she was treated by the police afterwards, the incident was a truly miserable experience for her.  But, for bicyclists throughout Illinois the event led to some positive legal changes.

"Lilly" was actually Rebecca Resman, the feisty development officer of Chicago's Active Transportation Alliance, and a very experienced city cyclist.  Her response in the immediate aftermath of the collision caused a ripple effect that went all the way to the Executive Mansion in Springfield, and to Chicago's City Hall.  At around 9:15 a.m. on October 31, 2012, Rebecca was riding her bicycle along her ordinary route to work southbound along the 1900 block of North Lincoln Avenue in Chicago.  She was five months pregnant at the time.  She was riding along the right side of the roadway in an area designated to be shared by bicycle and motor vehicle traffic.  Cars and trucks were backed up on southbound Lincoln as they were on most days and Rebecca was passing the stopped motor vehicles on the right, a very common practice among city cyclists.  As she attempted to pass a 2000 Buick Electra stopped to her left, a front seat passenger opened his door into Rebecca throwing her hard to the pavement.

Hurt, frightened and angry Rebecca asked the police officer who responded to the scene whether the occupants of the Buick would be ticketed.  The law is quite clear that motor vehicle occupants must look for traffic, including bicycle traffic, before opening their door.  The officer told her that if he was inclined to ticket anyone it would be her.  (In an earlier blog post I wrote that Rebecca was ticketed.  She wasn't.  The officer only threatened her with a ticket.)  He also wrote his police report strongly suggesting that it was Rebecca who was at fault for the collision.  After she hired us to represent her in an injury claim against the driver and passenger we received the following letter from Progressive Insurance Company:

The insurance company had "determined that [our] client, Ms. Rebecca Resman is majority at fault for this accident occurring.  The on-scene police report puts fault on Ms. Resman, states that she improperly overtook on the right causing this collision to occur."  Because of the way the report was written, Progressive was denying the injury claim.

We filed a lawsuit.

We also worked with Rebecca's employer, The Active Transportation Alliance, to get the law clarified.  The police officer was under the mistaken impression that a provision of the Illinois Vehicle Code allowing for right-sided passing only when eight feet of space is available applied to bicyclists. It actually only applied to motorcycles, motorized scooters and the like.  Rarely do Chicago cyclists have eight feet of space available for passing stopped traffic.  As the law was written, however, a cursory read could cause confusion as it had in this case.  We wrote up some simple changes to be inserted into the state statute and into Chicago's municipal code and submitted it to Ron Burke, the executive director at Active Trans.  He and his staff worked hard to find bill sponsors in Springfield and to get our proposal added to pro-bicycle ordinance changes Mayor Emanuel's office had already submitted to the City Counsel.  In Springfield, the bill sailed through both houses of the legislature and was signed into law by Governor Quinn.  In Chicago, we participated in negotiations regarding the language with Ron Burke, representatives from the Chicago Department of Transportation and city lawyers.  Eventually, we reached an agreement and the law was submitted and passed by the City Counsel.   Now, in Chicago and throughout Illinois there can be no question that bicyclists may pass slowed or stopped motor vehicles on the right.  There is no eight foot rule applicable to cyclists, only a requirement that passing be executed if the circumstances made it reasonably safe for the cyclist to do so.  Click here for a thorough description of the law and how it was clarified.  

During the litigation that followed Progressive's rejection Rebecca gave her deposition, during which she answered questions about the crash posed by the insurance company's attorney.  She did a wonderful job of explaining how the crash occurred and gave all those present the distinct impression that she was in no way acting foolishly at the time of the incident.  She established her credibility.  There were three reasons she was able to do this:  First, she is a very smart, awesome person.  Secondly, we spent time working with her to make sure she was well prepared for her deposition.  The importance of working with a client before their deposition cannot be overstated.  For the attorney, depositions are routine affairs, but young lawyers must remember that for the client they are novel and scary events.  Time must be taken to talk with the client and prepare them for what they may expect, the types of questions that will be asked and what the setting will look and sound like.  Rebecca was a good student during preparation and this helped her relax and perform well when the time came.  Thirdly, the facts were on her side.  The truth of the matter was that she was doing everything right when she was hit.  She was the victim of someone else's carelessness.  

Soon after her deposition, the defendants' attorney called me in hopes of reaching a settlement.  After several days of negotiations they made an offer I felt comfortable recommending to Rebecca and the case resolved.

When I work with people who want to learn to ride in the city I teach them to ride confidently.  Understand what your rights are then exercise them.  That does not mean that you will always have smooth sailing.  There are motorists and cops out there that either do not know or do not care about cyclists' rights.  But when you are in the right and something goes wrong there are folks out there who can and will help.  The Active Transportation Alliance is an awesome and powerful group advocating and working for cyclists and pedestrians.  Also, my partner Jim Freeman, me and our kick ass staff are always itching for a fight on behalf of people who ride.

2013: The Year's Biggest Bicycle Stories

There were some major ups and downs for bicycling in Chicago in 2013.  It was a year that saw a major uptick in the popularity of transportation cycling in our city.  It was also a year of losses which the bicycling community will never forget.  Here are the top five Chicago cycling stories of 2013:

5.  The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) placed a moratorium on the installation of protected bike lanes in Chicago.  In February, our friends at Streetsblog Chicago reported that IDOT -- which has jurisdiction over many streets in Chicago -- refused to allow the installation of protected bike lanes until at least three years of crash data could be collected.  Steetsblog pointed out that the moratorium was in places inconsistent with the plans and recommendations of the Chicago Department of Transportation.  IDOT's stance was frustrating to some in light of the availability of crash data from other cities which had significant experience with protected bike lanes.  In May, following the death of cyclist, Bobby Cann, who was killed on Clybourn Avenue, a road under IDOT's jursidiction and which lacked a protected bike lane, concern over the moratorium increased.  Many wondered if the existence of a protected lane where Cann was killed might have prevented the tragedy.  In October, at a memorial service for Cann it was announced that IDOT had backed off somewhat and would allow a protected bicycle lane to be installed on Clybourn.

4.  The City of Chicago and the State of Illinois clarified laws allowing people on bicycles to pass drivers on the right.  In June, Chicago's City Council passed the 2013 Bicycle Safety Ordinance which, among other things, stated that 

Any bicyclist upon a roadway is permitted to pass on the right side of a slower-moving or standing vehicle or bicycle, but must exercise due care when doing so.

9-52-040(d)

In August, the State followed suit passing a fix to the Illinois Motor Vehicle Code stating that human powered two wheeled vehicles are not barred from passing motor vehicles on the right.

The amendments were necessary to aid police departments confused over whether cyclists may pass on the right.  Unnecessary traffic citations to bicyclists were sometimes the result of this confusion.  With the changes in place, "Illinoisans riding bicycles may confidently pass slow-moving cars on the right side of the road and know that they are on solid ground legally," said Max Muller, Director of Government Relations for the Active Transportation Alliance.

Our law firm worked with Active Trans, CDOT and State Representative Laura Fine to draft the changes.

3.  In November, Gabe Klein, impassioned new wave infrastructure crusader, stepped away from his post as CDOT commissioner.  Early this month, his lieutenant, deputy commissioner Scott Kubly also called it quites.  Commissioner Klein was the driving force behind Chicago's push in recent years to install bicycle friendly infrastructure.  Under his watch, Chicago saw hundreds of miles of new protected and buffered bicycle lanes put in place and the implementation of a world class bike share system.  When he announced that he would be returning to the private sector many in bicycle advocacy assumed that Kubly would fill his shoes, allowing for a smooth transition and continuation of bike friendly changes.  With both gone, and with no successors yet to be named, the future of cycling in Chicago is perhaps less clear.

2.  The death of Bobby Cann shook Chicago's bicycling community to its core.  On a May 29th at around 6:35 p.m., Cann was struck and killed by Ryne San Hamel who was allegedly driving his Mercedes sedan 20 miles per hour over the speed limit.  San Hamel was charged with driving under the influence, having an alleged blood alcohol content of .127, well over the legal limit.  There was immediate wide spread outrage at the driver, heartfelt empathy for Cann's family and many friends, and fear among regular city cyclists.  A temporary memorial popped up at the site of the crash, which occurred outside of iconic Chicago bike shop Yojimbo's Garage.  In October, Clybourn Avenue was named Honorary Bobby Cann Way.  That same month The Reader featured Cann on its front page with the headline, "Death of a Cyclist."

Others died riding their bicycles in Chicago in 2013.  None of those lives were less important than Cann's.  But there was something about his death that shook the broader community deeper.  Perhaps it was because it happened while he was riding home from work in the early evening, on a sunny late spring day.  Maybe the fact that Cann was known to be a experienced safe city cyclist freaked a lot of people out. He was not the sort to run lights.  If it could happen to him, it could happen to any of us.  Perhaps much of it had to do with the driver, a young man himself, he was a partner with a business venture called allyoucandrink.com.  Pictures of San Hamel partying and appearing to drink substantial amounts of alcohol circulated over the internet.  The fact that San Hamel has been criminally charged, a relative rarity where a driver hurts or kills a cyclist, has increased its broad impact.   San Hamel seemed like the poster child of the world's worst driver and an uncaring, self-absorbed asshole.

1.  But the biggest story of 2013 was an undeniably positive one, the launch of Chicago's bike share program, Divvy.  Launched in June, Divvy has taken off with koisks popping up all over the city, a gazillion miles racked up by riders and an impressive safety record.  The idea of grabbing a public bike from one street corner and leaving it at a station near one's destination as proven to be a big hit.  At $75 for unlimited use for a year, or $7 per each half hour on a pay-as-you-go plan, it is an extremely cost effective and enjoyable way to get around town.  So popular has bike share been in Chicago that even during one of the coldest Decembers in recent memory Divvy bikes are routinely seen being pedaled all around town.

The best thing about Divvy is that it is for everybody, old and young, brave and less-so.  The bikes are heavy, slow, convenient and comfortable.  With step through frames and chain guards you can ride them in a suit or in a dress.  The program and its increasing popularity encourages everyone to ride the city, threatening to breakdown the us versus them mentality.  In the future aided by Divvy we are all people who ride bikes.

Clarity Spreads: All Illinois Bicyclists May Pass Slower Vehicles On The Right

Governor Pat Quinn has signed a bill that that makes it clear that all Illinois bicyclists may pass stopped or slow moving vehicles on the right.  The bill was signed on August 16th and goes into effect on January 1, 2014.  It sailed through the Illinois House and Senate and made it to the governor's desk thanks to the strong backing it had from the Active Transportation Alliance and its sponsors, State Representative Laura Fine of Glenview and Senator Thomas Cullerton of Villa Park.

The bill, a one sentence fix added to a portion of the Illinois Vehicle Code, was proposed and written by me after one of our clients was ticketed by Chicago police after she was doored by a vehicle passenger as she passed the car on the right.  She was pregnant at the time of the crash.  Though she was riding causiously she received a citation due to confusion over the law on the part of the officer that wrote the ticket. Her case was brought to the public's attention thanks to a post by Ken Griffith at Chi.StreetsBlog.Org:

Lilly was lying in the trauma unit at Northwestern Memorial. (For anonymity, she that asked we only use her nickname.) She’d been doored on Lincoln Avenue on her morning bike commute, and now doctors were swarming around her, trying to determine if her pregnancy, then five months along, was at risk. 

That’s when the police officer who had responded at the crash scene walked in to drop off the incident report and to let Lilly, 30, know that — by the way — she was at fault for the crash. Her heart-rate monitor began beeping furiously — how could she be at fault? She’d been riding in the shared [bike] lane on Lincoln, passing between the line of stopped traffic and the line of parked cars, when a passenger in one of the cars idling in the traffic lane swung his door open straight into her bike, sending her spinning into the pavement.

The new legislative fix clears up the confusion over whether a section of the Illinois Motor Vehicle Code, allowing for right-sided passing only when eight feet of space is available in which to do so, applied to bicyclists. Rarely will there be eight feet available between slowed and standing motor vehicle traffic and vehicles parallel parked along the right curb, at least in urban areas.  Thus the law as it was seemed to bar passing on the right in many if not most circumstances available to the urban  and in-town bicyclist; a prohibition that would likely make travel by bike nearly as much of a teeth grinding slog as is driving a car in traffic.  The statute at issue was Section 11-704(b) of the Illinois Vehicle Code which stated:

The driver of a 2 wheeled vehicle may not pass upon the right of any other vehicle proceeding in the same direction unless the unobstructed pavement to the right of the vehicle being passed is of a width of not less than 8 feet.  625 ILCS 5/11-704(b)

It may have seemed reasonable at first to consider a bicycle a "2 wheeled vehicle."  After all, in many instances the Vehicle Code treats the bicycle as just another vehicle.  Section 11-1502 states that, "Every person riding a bicycle upon a highway shall be granted all of the rights and shall be subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle by this Code..."  

Unfortunately, however, some had ended their analysis of the law there, creating confusion that lead to Lilly getting a ticket.  Our Vehicle Code may grant bicyclists many of the same rights as drivers, but it explicitly distinguishes what is a "vehicle" and what is not. The Code defines the term "vehicle" in Section 1-217 as, "Every device, in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway or requiring a certificate of title. . ., except devices moved by human power. . ." (emphasis added).  Further, Section 1-106 defines a "bicycle" as, "Every device propelled by human power upon which any person may ride, having two tandem wheels except scooters and similar devices."  A bicycle, therefore, is not - and never was - a vehicle under the Code.  Hence, Section 11-704(b)'s "eight foot rule" could only have applied to motorized two wheeled devices, motorcycles, scooters, mopeds and the like.  There was legal precedent for this reading of the law as I documented in a post about this issue earlier this year.  But a simple clarification to be added to Section 11-704(b) seemed like the best and most practical solution to ensure that no other injured bicyclists would be ticketed unnecessarily.

Ron Burke and Max Muller, Active Trans' executive director and director of government relations, respectively, and I discussed how to fix the law.  We decided on a single sentence:  "This subsection does not apply to devices propelled by human power."  Simple, we all agreed, would be best.  There would be no need to reference other parts of the Code or reach for legislature intent.  The language succinctly spoke for itself.

Earlier this summer, Chicago passed an ordinance that similarly clarified application of the eight-foot-rule within the City's borders.  Now, as Max wrote in a blog post yesterday, all "Illinoisans riding bicycles may confidently pass slow-moving cars on the right side of the road and know that they are on solid ground legally."

As for Lilly's case, it is ongoing.  The driver's insurance company rejected her claim because she was ticketed in the crash.  A lawsuit has been filed and we intend to take the matter to trial if necessary.

It Is Crystal Clear, Chicago Cyclists May Pass Slower Traffic On The Right Thanks To New City Ordinance

It is now crystal clear that in Chicago bicyclists may pass slowed or standing motor vehicles on the right.  A section of the 2013 Bicycle Safety Ordinance proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel on May 8th and passed by the City Council on June 5th clarifies the matter.  It will become law when signed by the Mayor, which is expected to happen soon.

The section states:

Any bicyclist upon a roadway is permitted to pass on the right side of a slower-moving or standing vehicle or bicycle, but must exercise due care when doing so.

9-52-040(d)

This amendment to the Code clears up some confusion over whether a section of the Illinois Motor Vehicle Code, allowing for right-sided passing only when eight feet of space was available in which to do so, applied to bicyclists.  Some Chicago police officers were ticketing cyclists for passing cars and trucks on the right in the absence of eight feet of space, rarely available in our congested city streets.  I noted in a previous blog post that the state vehicle code's eight foot rule only applied to two-wheeled motor vehicles such as motorcycles and scooters.  Nevertheless, confusion persisted until the Mayor's office, with assistance from the Active Transportation Alliance, stepped in to offer more definition to the law.

Though the eight foot rule is a controversy no more, it is important to note that cyclists do not have carte blanche to pass vehicles on the right.  They must, "exercise due care when doing so."  This is legalese for, you can do it only when it is safe.  Just because you have the ends of your handlebars shaved down to nubs to thread the tightest spaces between cars does not mean that you may do so legally.  Also, Chicago bicyclists must yield to pedestrians who have exited vehicles which have not pulled to the curb.  The second sentence of 9-52-040(d) states:

When approaching a vehicle which has discharged passengers from its right side, a bicyclist must either yield to those pedestrians or pass on the left.

In order to understand what a cyclist's responsibility is when a vehicle discharges a passenger from the vehicle's right side it is important to know how the language passed by the City Council came to be.  When the Mayor's office originally proposed the amendment, section 9-52-040(d) stated:

Any bicyclist upon a roadway is permitted to pass on the right side of a slower-moving or standing vehicle or bicycle, but must exercise due care when doing so.  When approaching a vehicle discharging passengers from its right side, a bicyclist must either yield to the pedestrians or pass on the left.

(emphasis added).

Apparently, the intent of the second sentence was to offer protection to bus passengers forced to alight from a bus that was not able to pull fully to the curb.  When the ordinance was proposed by the Mayor's office, the Active Transportation Alliance was nice enough to provide us with a copy.  When I read the second sentence I was concerned that, notwithstanding the drafters' reasonable intentions, the section could be used unfairly against a bicyclist doored from the left.  In particular, I imagined a taxi cab company, whose driver chose to discharge a passenger without pulling to the curb (required in Chicago), using the section to defend against a dooring claim brought by an injured bicyclist.  Those sorts of incidents happen a lot in Chicago.  One such incident happened to a client of ours whose story was told in a recent post on Streetsblog Chicago.  Once a passenger opens a car door, no matter how suddenly, the bicyclist must yield or swing around to the vehicle's left was how I imagined the ordinance would be interpreted.

When I expressed my concerns to Ron Burke, executive director of the Active Transportation Alliance, he was very responsive.  He wisely set up a meeting between CDOT, Active Trans and the City's law department to discuss the matter.  My law partner, Jim Freeman, and I were invited to the meeting and attended.  We proposed elimination of the second sentence altogether.  Stating that bicyclists had to pass with "due care" seemed like enough.  The City pressed for greater clarity, however, in a desire to make sure that pedestrians exiting a vehicle were protected from cyclists under the law.  Fair.  We proposed that the duty of the bicyclist to yield kick in not when the passenger is being discharged, but rather once the passenger had been discharged.  What's the difference?  An important one:  Under our proposal the bicyclist has the duty to yield once the passenger has completely exited the vehicle; not simply when the door was opened.  We felt this created a sharper line.  For the passenger to have completely exited the vehicle the door would have been opened for a long enough period of time for an approaching bicyclist to see and avoid it and the exiting passenger.  To be clear, drivers and passengers owe a duty to bicyclists to look before opening a door on the vehicle's the left and right.

I would like to express our very sincere thanks to CDOT, the City of Chicago and the Active Transportation Alliance for so thoughtfully addressing our concerns and for their commitment to protecting cyclists in our city.

Efforts are underway to clarify the Illinois Motor Vehicle Code itself with changes like those being initiated in Chicago expected soon.  More on that in a later post.  Stay tuned...

It's Clear As Mud: IL Bicyclists May Ride To Right Of Slower Traffic

A controversy exists where none should for Illinois bicyclists.  Riding to the right of faster motor vehicle traffic is the law of the land.  But what is a cyclist legally to do when traffic to his or her left has slowed or stopped?  Must the bicyclist slow so as to maintain their position behind, or continue forward to pass on the right?  

On Friday, Chi.StreetsBlog.Org posted a story about a section of law that has confounded some regarding what the proper course is for Illinois cyclists.  Evidently some police officers in our state are confused as to what the law is.  As the story documents, after getting doored by a motorist parked along the curb, a pregnant female Chicago cyclist was recently ticketed by police for riding to the right of slower traffic.  StreetsBlog and the author of the piece, Keith Griffith, are to be applauded for shining a light on the erroneous interpretation of the law that has apparently brought about an injustice.  I was interviewed for the piece and expressed my surprise.  I would like to take this opportunity to explain how and when Illinois bicyclists may legally pass on the right.

In our state a bicyclist may pass on the right so long as it is reasonably safe to do so.  However, as the StreetsBlog story notes, some feel that cyclists may only pass on the right when there is no less than 8 feet of space available.  Rarely will there be 8 feet available between slowed and standing motor vehicle traffic and vehicles parallel parked along the right curb, at least in urban areas like Chicago.  Thus the law seems to bar passing on the right in many if not most circumstances available to the urban bicyclist; a prohibition that would likely make travel by bike nearly as much of a teeth grinding slog as is driving a car in the city.  The statute at issue is Section 11-704(b) of the Illinois Vehicle Code which states:

The driver of a 2 wheeled vehicle may not pass upon the right of any other vehicle proceeding in the same direction unless the unobstructed pavement to the right of the vehicle being passed is of a width of not less than 8 feet.  625 ILCS 5/11-704(b)

It may be reasonable to at first think of a bicycle as a "2 wheeled vehicle."  After all, in many instances the Vehicle Code treats the bicycle as just another vehicle.  Section 11-1502 states that, "Every person riding a bicycle upon a highway shall be granted all of the rights and shall be subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle by this Code..."  

Unfortunately, however, some end their analysis of the law here, creating the present confusion.  Our Vehicle Code may grant bicyclists many of the same rights as drivers, but it explicitly distinguishes what is a "vehicle" and what is not.  It is fundamental to first read and understand how words are defined in a statute when trying to make sense of it.  Most statutes have a definitions section and the Vehicle Code is no exception.  It defines the term "vehicle" in Section 1-217 as, "Every device, in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway or requiring a certificate of title. . ., except devices moved by human power. . ." (emphasis added).  Further, Section 1-106 defines a "bicycle" as, "Every device propelled by human power upon which any person may ride, having two tandem wheels except scooters and similar devices."  A bicycle, therefore, is not a vehicle under the Code.  Hence, Section 11-704(b)'s "eight foot rule" can only apply to motorized two wheeled devices, motorcycles, scooters, mopeds and the like.

If the Illinois legislature had meant the eight foot rule to apply to bicycles it would have said so.  Instead, in enacting Section 11-704(b) it limited the requirement to "drivers" of "2 wheeled vehicle[s]."  No doubt, the possibility of confusion could have been avoided by explicitly stating that the Section was not to apply to human powered devices, but lawmakers are human and may not foresee every way in which their creations will be used or misused.  In any event, there are other helpful sources to which we may look to understand what the law is.  The Illinois Appellate Court took up a similar issue of statutory construction in People v. Schaefer, 654 N.E.2d 267, 274 Ill.App.3d 450 (2nd Dist. 1995).  In that case, the Court was asked to consider whether Illinois' drunk driving statute applied to bicyclists.  It found that it did not after considering many of the same issues in play regarding the eight foot rule.  Firstly, the Court found that the DUI statute only applied to "vehicles," and that bicycles are not defined as such under the Illinois Vehicle Code.  Secondly, it found that any vagueness regarding whether the DUI statute should or should not apply to bicyclists must in any event be construed to the benefit of the bicyclist.  Importantly, the Court stated that where a statute seeks to outlaw certain behavior any vagueness in the law must be construed narrowly to the benefit of the person to be charged.  It held:

It is not this court's function to judicially expand the scope of an ambiguous statute.  We determine that the language of the relevant statutes is not sufficiently definite to give the person of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity to know what conduct is prohibited.  In other words, there is no clear and express legislative intent to apply [the DUI statute] to bicyclists.  We conclude that [it] does not apply to bicyclists. Schaefer, 654 N.E.2d at 269.

As I have explained above, reading the definition of vehicle in the Vehicle Code makes it pretty clear that the eight foot rule does not apply to bicyclists.  However, pursuant to the holding in Schaefer, even if clarity cannot be found, any perceived vagueness as to whether Section 11-704(b) applies to bicyclists must benefit the cyclist cited for passing on the right in the absence eight feet of space.  At best, Section 11-704(b) fails to put bicyclists on notice that they may pass on the right, denying a clear and express legislative intent to apply that Section to them.

In Chicago, the intent of the powers that be to permit cyclists to pass on the right seems a bit clearer.  Section 9-52-040(c) of the Municipal Code of Chicago states:

Every person operating a bicycle upon a roadway shall ride as near as practicable to the right-hand side of the roadway, exercising due care when passing a standing vehicle or one proceeding in the same direction in the same direction and at all times giving the right-of-way to other moving vehicles.

No eight foot rule there; just a very reasonable requirement that bicyclists exercise due care when "passing a standing vehicle or one proceeding in the same direction" at a slower speed.

Notwithstanding what the law is, there are two practical points that Illinois bicyclists should keep in mind.  Firstly, no matter what, when attempting to pass a slower vehicle on the right, a bicyclist must do so cautiously and only when conditions, including the amount of space available, allow safe passage.  Threading the needle through a tight space could get you hurt, killed or rightly ticketed.  Secondly, consider yourself on notice that many police officers will consider you in violation of the law and may give you a ticket for passing on the right.  You may eventually win the war, but you may face a battle.

As noted in the StreetsBlog piece, California cyclists recently dealt with the very same confusion.  It amended its motor vehicle code to explicitly allow cyclists to pass on the right, the new law taking effect on January 1, 2011.  Click here to read about the California law change.