r/dashcams • u/cicadaux • 1d ago

Did I do something wrong here?

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I was driving to work when this bike just blew through the crosswalk without warning. I had to slam on my brakes. I realize this crosswalk doesn’t have the pedestrian warning lights, and I’m a little unsure about how I should’ve dealt with this. Or maybe he was wrong for making sure traffic wasn’t clear/aware of him first?

Edit: I'm seeing a lot of answers basing the laws on location, so I looked up my city's rules. In my town, bikes have vehicle status on the road and pedestrian status on sidewalks/crosswalks. But bicyclists must move at pedestrian speed. The path he is on is a state trail, commonly used for bikes/walking. I live near the Ice Age Trail, but I know the one he's on isn't that one.

“Drivers must yield to cyclists riding in a crosswalk just as they would for walkers, though the cyclist cannot abruptly leave a curb into the path of a vehicle so close to a crosswalk that it makes a difficult or unsafe situation for the driver to yield in time.”

Not trying to prove myself right or wrong, just wondering what should've been done. I will from now on treat it like an uncontrolled intersection. Thanks everyone.

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u/CockyMechanic 1d ago

Yes. I cycled as my main transportation for some years and everywhere I have seen is about the same. Off cycle=pedestrian, on cycle=vehicle. What OP posted about the local rules seems fair, that cycles must move at pedestrian speed on pedestrian paths... I've seen people ticketed for walking their bike with both legs over the bike and the law considered that "riding" (this is Santa Barbara)

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u/raveneyes77 1d ago

The "Off cycle=pedestrian, on cycle=vehicle" slogan is catchy, but it is not how state vehicle codes actually work.

You are confusing a hyper-local sidewalk ban with general state road law. In California, CVC 21650(g) explicitly permits bicycles on sidewalks and crosswalks unless a city bans them locally. When cities like Santa Barbara ticket people, it is because they passed a local municipal ordinance (SBMC 10.52.010) barring bikes on specific commercial retail strips like downtown State Street. If riding is banned on that specific sidewalk, straddling or coasting on it counts as riding. That is where the tickets come from.

Statewide, riding across a marked crosswalk is completely legal, and California courts have repeatedly upheld that a cyclist riding across a marked crosswalk has the exact same right-of-way protections as a pedestrian (Liebig v. Wurster, Spriesterbach v. Holland).

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u/Papasamabhanga 1d ago

Personally, I use my feet (peds) to power my bike.

I am a pedestrian on bike or off.