People of the State of California vs Lane Hogging Cyclist

Cycling lawyer Seth Davidson publishes his (possibly embellished) creative retelling of the trial of the century, in which the 70 to 80 riders on the Big Orange Cycling Club rides begin to eschew the gutter and routinely cycle “down the best bike lane in America: the right-hand lane of” Pacific Coast Highway.

Here’s a view of PCH near the city of Huntington Beach in Orange County, California. I don’t know precisely where the story takes place, but in LA County, California Route 1 is mostly non-shareable 11 foot lanes where I can’t imagine large club rides trying to stay skinny in the gutter.

Pacific Coast  Highway Huntington Beach

A couple of LA County Sheriff Deputies decided the cyclists need to stay in the shoulder and cited the ride leader with a violation of CVC 21202, California’s Far-To-Right law.

After that was a meeting with the LA County Deputy in charge of traffic enforcement on PCH and a subsequent hearing before a local judge. I won’t give away the ending except to say that hilarity ensues.

Read the entire story at People of the State of California v Greg Leibert.

Geography notes: Pacific Coast Highway = PCH = California State Route 1. For those in the San Francisco Bay Area, the “South Bay” in that story refers to Santa Monica Bay, so it’s basically the LA County Beach Cities.

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