The Undergraduate Law Review at UC San Diego

For the past decade, cyclist deaths have steadily increased because of a general lack of awareness and enforcement of vehicle code. Additionally, there is no current legislation pertaining to the mechanics of operating a bicycle. This causes three issues. Firstly, new road hazards are created for motor operators. Secondly, otherwise avoidable crashes involving motor vehicles and cyclists occur. Lastly, there is pushback from both the cyclist community and the motor vehicle community where cyclists increasingly demand more freedoms on the road while the motor vehicle community increasingly demands more restrictions on cyclists and other non-motor vehicles. Despite varying opinions on vehicle restrictions, the official statistics provided by the US Department of Transportation Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) are indisputable: 843 cyclist deaths have occurred across the nation in 2019 with California as the lead contributor with 20% of these deaths, which is how it has been for the past decade. This is no longer an issue of fault between cyclists and motor vehicles but now an issue of enforcement and outdated legislation. This paper will analyze how the lack of enforcement of California Vehicle Code 21200 and 21202 from law enforcement and legislative powers to combat on-road negligence such as riding antiparallel to traffic and disobeying traffic signals negatively impacts the current state of driving on the highway for both motor vehicles and cyclists. The article aims to propose new legislation, namely requiring cyclists to have a license or permit to ride a bicycle to mitigate future deaths and improve the level of safety on-road.