Gregg writes to ask what to do on his e-scooter when a bike lane goes onto the sidewalk, as it does on several Portland bridges. Of course scooters are required to use available bike lanes. ORS 814.514:
“[A] person commits the offense of failure of a motor assisted scooter operator to use a bicycle lane or bicycle path if the person operates a motor assisted scooter on any portion of a roadway that is not a bicycle lane or bicycle path when a bicycle lane or bicycle path is adjacent to or near the roadway [unless prohibited by local ordinance].”
But a scooter is not allowed on a sidewalk except to cross it to enter or leave adjacent property. ORS 814.524:
“A person commits the offense of unsafe operation of a motor assisted scooter on a sidewalk if the person operates a motor assisted scooter on a sidewalk, except to enter or leave adjacent property …”
So what to do when, as on the Broadway or Hawthorne bridges, the bike lane goes up onto what looks like a sidewalk? Or on Lovejoy eastbound west of NW 13th Avenue? Where the sidewalk IS the bike lane, how can you use the bike lane but stay off the sidewalk?
The technical answer on the bridges is that the concrete way that looks like a sidewalk doesn’t meet the definition of sidewalk because sidewalks are defined as being next to the “adjacent property line,” ORS 801.485, and what’s outside the railings on the bridges is a 40 foot drop to the river. That’s not “adjacent property,” and there’s no “line.”
On NW Lovejoy just west of NW 13th, where the bike lane is routed up onto the sidewalk behind the MAX shelter, take the bike lane, and tell the arresting officer you’re following the law that requires e-scooters to take the bike lane. (Besides, who wants to ride an e-scooter between the MAX tracks on Lovejoy?)
