FBinNY 

Re: legal status of bikes in NJ, I'm somewhat curious about your concerns, and how you think NJ places bikes in limbo.

The law clearly gives bicyclists (I don't consider things like cars or bikes to have rights) all the same rights and obligations of motor vehicle drivers, despite not considering bicycles vehicles. IMO it's a distinction without a difference. However, if you have specific examples of how this distinction can work against bicyclists, I'd like to hear them.

In some cases the distinction can work for bicyclists, and here's a specific one as applied by courts inn New York State. If a bicyclist who also has a valid driver's license is cited and convicted for a moving violation he can ask that points NOT be assigned against his license. This is because NYS courts apply an equal protection logic, so a bicyclist withn a driver's license isn't penalized more that one without, since no clicense is necessary. I don't know how other states handle this issue, but at least here, Limbo works FOR the bicyclist, not against.

Note to anyone cited in NYS -- You have to make the request because officers often (usually) fail to note that the violation involved a bicycle rather than a car. FWIW the one time I dealt with this personally, I brought it up to the prosecutor pre-trial and ended up with a dismissal because he thougth the judge would laugh at him. So, no points and no fine.