Massachusetts requires bicycles ridden at night to have a headlight. When lack of same causes an accident, it does seem to be a significant factor for assigning blame, although the general trend is "blame the bicyclist" anyway.
JB, you might have been vaguely remembering MGL Ch. 85 ยง11B, which explicitly allows bicycling on all roads in the Commonwealth not explicitly posted otherwise.
Being somewhat of a Devil's Advocate, given that I'm in the "obey signals religiously" camp, some rhetorical questions: almost no pedestrians obey walk/don't-walk signals. Most cars obey drive/don't-drive signals. Why should the bicycles make like the cars instead of the pedestrians? Where do you draw the line and why?
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Date: 2004-05-14 02:23 pm (UTC)Massachusetts requires bicycles ridden at night to have a headlight. When lack of same causes an accident, it does seem to be a significant factor for assigning blame, although the general trend is "blame the bicyclist" anyway.
JB, you might have been vaguely remembering MGL Ch. 85 ยง11B, which explicitly allows bicycling on all roads in the Commonwealth not explicitly posted otherwise.
Being somewhat of a Devil's Advocate, given that I'm in the "obey signals religiously" camp, some rhetorical questions: almost no pedestrians obey walk/don't-walk signals. Most cars obey drive/don't-drive signals. Why should the bicycles make like the cars instead of the pedestrians? Where do you draw the line and why?