Driveways, sidewalks and bike lanes.
All state statutes regarding vehicles exiting a driveway to enter a street follow one of two laws. Those two laws are: 1) Stop before driving across the sidewalk and onto the street. 2) Yield to any pedestrian on the sidewalk before driving across it. In all states and DC, all vehicles, after they have either”stopped” or “yielded” must again yield to any oncoming traffic before entering the roadway. This means bicycles in a bike lane! Motorists must understand that a bicycle lane is a legitimate lane of travel and a motorist may not block that lane without first yielding to any oncoming bicyclist. Once the motorist has yielded to an approaching bicyclist and it is necessary to “inch out” into the bike lane for reasons of visibility, then the motorist may do so. Any subsequent bicyclists approaching the vehicle in the bike lane need to either stop or go around.
