A Washington state appeals court has ruled cities must provide safe roadways for all traffic, including bicycles.
The three-judge panel found that cycling is a mode of “ordinary travel,” not just a sport, so cities must maintain roads for safe bicycle travel.
The ruling this week came in a lawsuit filed by Pamela O’Neill, who was seriously injured while commuting home from work in Port Orchard. She was thrown from her bicycle when she hit a patch of road that had gaps in the concrete.
O’Neill sued the city, claiming it was negligent in maintaining Sidney Avenue in a way that provided safe travel for bicycles. But a Superior Court judge granted the city’s motion to dismiss the case. The appeals court overturned that dismissal and sent the case back to the lower court “for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
O’Neill is an experienced cyclist who regularly commuted by bike to and from work and often took new routes to challenge her abilities, the court ruling said. Before July 18, 2009, she had never ridden down Sidney Avenue, the record said.
As she headed down the hill, the road conditions changed from smooth to uneven. Photographs of the site of the accident showed “gaps between concrete slabs of up to 4 inches and height differentials of more than 1 inch,” the court said. At one point, O’Neill’s handlebars jerked to the right, throwing her to the ground. She landed on her head and right shoulder and suffered serious injuries.
A city public works director said in his deposition that the city fixes roadways on a “complaint-based system” and the city had not received complaints about that stretch of road.
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