...riding on a bicycle in that part of a street devoted to the passage of vehicles...
2013-02-25 17:50:04.000395+01 by Dan Lyke 0 comments
Quick, what was the time-frame of this court decision:
... This right of the people to the use of the public streets of a city, is so well established, and so universally recognized in this Country, that it has become a part of the alphabet of fundamental rights of the citizen. While the tyranny of the American system of government very largely consists in the action of the municipal authorities, this right has not yet been questioned, or attempted to be abridged. There can be no question, then, that a citizen riding on a bicycle in that part of a street devoted to the passage of vehicles, is but exercising his legal right to its use, and a City ordinance that attempts to forbid such use of that part of a public street would be held void as against common right.
That passage comes from pamphlet on the rights of cyclists, referencing the Kansas Supreme Court decision (City of Eudora vs. Miller. 30. Kansas 494.) of 1883 (which number I got from Kansas Attorney General Opinion No. 79-222 (PDF) (from 1979 on a decision about county vs city maintenance of a bridge).
Which I got turned on to from this excerpt from the decision which references a now-defunct Geocities page by way of this answer to an Ask MeFi about the legality of "reliable transportation" meaning "car" in job listings.