burnthesheep

Yes, many/most highways are not open to peds or bikes. So yes, trespassing.

However.......how many trespassing arrests should we be seeing for cars driving in bike lanes? Hrmmmmm.

indyfabz

See my posts above. It's legal in many places west of the Mississippi. I have been on interstates that have had little or almost no traffic. I think we got passed by 2 cars in 8 miles of interstate riding in ND. ACA's Trans Am route uses I-80 east of Rawlins, WY for maybe 13 miles because there is no other paved option. It's Northern Tier route uses I-90 in ND for the same reason.

I-15 in Melrose, MT as seen on Street View. I have taken a sun break underneath it on several occasions. A vehicle maybe every 5 minutes or more.

fietsbob

Go to meetings of your government, and say your piece, in person right there..

indyfabz

Plenty of bridges are off limits to bikes. But thanks for the amusement you provide on an almost daily basis.

And remember that this guy got off easy. In MA in '65 Arlo Guthrie got fined $50 AND had to pick up the garbage in the snow.

raria

Holy Crap. I used to live in CA and I5 was a 70mph limit straight line with plenty of cars and trucks all doing > 80mph. The suck from that type of speed would be quite dangerous.

Shimagnolo

Prior to the completion of the Glenwood Springs <-> Denver bike route along I-70, you had to take I-70 for a couple miles when riding between Lookout Mtn and Bergen Park. You had a paved berm as wide as a motor lane all to yourself. My biggest worry was flats caused by the wires shed by worn out steel-belted tires, since the debris thrown out of the motor lanes collected there.

jefnvk

It is largely an out west thing, where roads are rather scarce and the Interstate may be the only thing for 20 miles. Lots of stuff gets to use them then, the first time I was in Montana I came around a corner at 80MPH to pile on the brakes because a tractor pulling an implement with a slow moving vehicle triangle was taking up two lanes.

indyfabz

Plenty of shoulder that suck is not an issue.

TrojanHorse

I've ridden on I-5 southbound between San Clemente and Oceanside plenty of times. Unless you have a magic pass to ride on the Marine Base, it's the only navigable route south. Traffic is usually very heavy, very fast (except on weekends, bikes are sometimes faster than cars) the shoulder is very large and it's only between two exits. The main hazard is navigating around a car or truck in the breakdown lane. On weekends, you can survive in the right lane but on week days, forget it. Hike around.

It's a thing.

wipekitty

Yep - not that weird in the rural parts of the western US. Interstates in the rural mountain/plains regions are a very different experience from freeways on the coasts or surrounding larger urban centers.

When I moved to Colorado in 2003, you'd still occasionally see cyclists on the 36 between Denver and Boulder. Now, of course, it's more built up, with more traffic as well as improved cycling infrastructure.

prathmann

A number of years ago a couple of us did a ride on the I-5 shoulder starting from Tracy (SF Bay area) and heading down to the edge of Santa Clarita (just north of LA). At that time this entire stretch (almost 300 miles) was open to bicyclists.
The draft from the stream of high-speed trucks passing us was actually quite welcome, but the metal wire debris from disintegrated tires wasn't. Had quite a few flats from these sharp wire bits. Really didn't have any safety concerns during this ride, but it was pretty boring without much change in the scenery until the Grapevine. And it felt like we were going slower than indicated on our cyclometers. I attributed this to the wide cleared right-of-way along the freeway. Without the visual sensation of passing houses, trees, etc., we didn't get the usual sensation of our speed. And seeing all the other traffic going much faster probably didn't help.

hotbike

caloso

A few miles of I-80 in the Sierras. (I tried to map out a route from Sacramento to the lake, and for a stretch the only paved road is the interstate.)

BlazingPedals

Wouldn't have had a problem if he could have maintained the minimum speed. In Michigan that's only 55 mph.

DaveQ24

mr,grumpy 

There is literally an exit every two miles on that stretch of road and on most of it you can simply walk off into the woods and be in a residential area. I can only imagine how hard Mr. Christian had to work to turn "get off the highway" to "your under arrest".

exmechanic89

This sums it up..

unterhausen

East of the Mississippi, it's fairly rare for bicycles to be legal on limited access highways. The signs at entrance ramps that list what is prohibited are very specific. If bicycles are allowed, they will not be listed on those signs. We rode on a stretch of interstate in South Carolina once. It was prohibited, but the alternative was 20 miles on back roads or 5 miles on the interstate. So we took our chances since we had ridden a long way and wanted to get to our overnight stop. Semis are a lot of fun at that speed. We were prepared to be really polite and plead ignorance.

I used to ride (legally) on I 84 east of Ogden in Utah almost every day. Got off as soon as I got through the canyon. There is a bridge at the top of the hill where there is no shoulder. Fortunately, it's not that long of a bridge. Back then, traffic was fairly light, not sure now, I think the area past the canyon has been built up with housing. As someone up-thread mentioned, the only problem area is crossing exits. Many people are going really fast, even if they are going to get off the road.

indyfabz

That can be a serious problem. During last year's tour in Montana I had to ride four relatively short stretches of I-90 the first day. I scoped out the route using Google Maps satellite view and saw that there was one older bridge that had no real shoulder to speak of. Fortunately, it was only 0.2 miles long, and traffic was very light. I just took it on faith that any motorists would move into the right lane or slow down, but I did make it a point to sprint the best I could riding a fully-loaded bike. Don't think I got passed by any motorists.

tcarl

Missouri's law is interesting - bicycles are not prohibited from Interstates, but all vehicles that cannot maintain the minimum posted speed limit (usually 40 mph) are prohibited from using a traffic lane. In other words, you may ride on the Interstate highway, but stay on the shoulder. With that said I've never see anyone doing it. Most Missouri interstates are rather busy and there are usually paved alternates nearby.

caloso

It's clearly an East v. West thing.

hotbike

base2 

In America, because roads & highways are for the transportation of people & commerce, it is always legal to ride on a limited access highway, unless specifically prohibited. Each state has a map showing where. Some states even have a map of where cars are prohibited. I'm thinking of beaches and the like that are actually designated highways like we have here in Western Wa.

Here in Washington State the prohibited areas for bicycles extend from Somewhere North of Everett/Marysville/Arlington to South of Tacoma & a section of Olympia for Interstate 5. Illegal on I-90 from orign to East of Issaquah becoming legal by about North Bend, and then Illegal a few miles before Spokane all the way to the Idaho border. 520 & 405 being illegal in their entirety.

If I am in error, please excuse my faulty memory.

hotbike

livedarklions

As far as I can tell, in New England, there are two classes of highways, and one of them is off limits to bicycles. First, there's your basic state or federal highway. Those are generally ok for bicyclists to use by riding on the shoulder. One of my favorite state highways has a speed limit of 55 mph, but has an absolutely huge breakdown lane that is additionally protected most of the way by a rumble strip. Generally, one enters these roads at intersections, and there are no ramps involved.

Restricted highways (state and interstate) are strictly off-limits to bicycles, and signs at the entrance ramps clearly tell you that. Some of the posted speed limits on the restricted roads are actually lower than a lot of the basic highways, but the big variable is the completely bicycle unfriendly style of entrance and exit ramp. There simply is no way to go straight across the highway end of an exit or entrance ramp without a huge risk of getting clobbered by a driver that absolutely expects that there will be no cross-traffic.