Get Authorized: Funeral processions by bike?

Welcome to Get Authorized, a column that goes deep into site visitors legislation with the assistance of consultants within the area. Right this moment’s skilled is Ray Thomas, a Portland-based lawyer at Thomas, Coon, Newton & Frost with a long time of expertise in bicycle legislation and advocacy. Learn previous Get Authorized columns right here.

As extra individuals combine biking into their lives, extra elements of our lives will likely be accomplished on a bicycle.

Most individuals learn that and take into consideration issues like biking to work or to the shop. However Portlanders are totally different. Right here we do home strikes by bike, we’ve events on bikes, we carry huge a great deal of cargo on our bikes, we trip bikes after disasters, we bike via “drive” throughs, and sure, some individuals have even thought-about funeral processions by bike.

In spite of everything, if funeral processions can occur with automobiles, why can’t we use bikes to hold a family members to their ultimate resting place?

This example got here up lately when associates of the late Aaron Tarfman thought-about a funeral procession via the streets to a neighborhood cemetery. Aaron was staunchly anti-car and it could have been antithetical to his values to make use of one in all them — a lot much less a number of in a slow-moving parade via town — for his ultimate trip.  As preliminary emails flew round, authorized questions arose. In the end, famous native lawyer and bike legislation skilled Ray Thomas (as in Thomas, Coon, Newton & Frost, a longtime BikePortland advertiser) was cc’d on one of many emails.

Thomas regarded into the difficulty and found that, lo and behold, it’s truly authorized to make use of bicycles for funeral processions within the state of Oregon.

“Frankly, conducting a funeral procession by bike had by no means occurred to me earlier than besides as a ‘why not’ kind of factor,” Thomas shared with me through e mail lately. He needed to seek out out not provided that it may very well be authorized to move stays by bicycle on public streets; however whether or not members in a bicycle funeral procession would have the identical authorized protections whereas collaborating in a single as automobile customers do.

“Stomping round within the ORS and case legislation revealed no direct solutions about bike funerals but it surely appeared fairly clear that you would be able to have a motorbike funeral, full with a funeral procession chief whose bicycle is outfitted with particular lights making different site visitors cease or pull over,” Thomas wrote.

Let’s dig into the statutes…

In Oregon legislation, a funeral procession is outlined (in ORS 801.288) as, “two or extra automobiles, together with any Funeral Lead Automobile or Funeral Escort Automobile, accompanying the physique or cremated stays of a deceased individual.”  In accordance with Thomas’s interpretation, a “Funeral Lead Automobile” and/or a “Funeral Escort Automobile” will be any car — together with a bicycle since a bicycle is a car in Oregon legislation — geared up with both crimson or crimson and white lights (ORS 811.800 and ORS 816.285).

Why does this matter? As a result of by legislation, a funeral procession is given many distinctive rights over different customers of the highway.

“Funeral processions are allowed to basically take over an intersection if the Funeral Escort Automobile or Funeral Lead Automobile lawfully enters an intersection, and the next procession might then enter the intersection with out stopping,” Thomas says, citing ORS 811.804. “The statute requires that an individual should yield the proper of approach to a funeral procession and cease earlier than coming into any intersection occupied by the procession, then stay stopped till the procession has handed.”

If somebody drives, and even walks or bikes via an official funeral course of, they are often present in violation of ORS 811.802, “Failure to yield proper of approach to funeral procession,” a category D site visitors violation. Class D is the bottom stage site visitors violations and has a most positive of $250, minimal of $60 and presumptive positive of $110.

Thomas additionally believes that normal bike lights can be ample sufficient to set off the authorized necessities to guide a funeral procession by bike, however he recommends as giant and as vivid of a light-weight as attainable for higher daytime visibility.

And in case you have been questioning, you don’t want a particular license or skilled coaching to guide a funeral procession. ORS 432.005, subsection 25 grants any individual the proper to behave as a “Funeral Course of Practitioner.” There’s additionally no requirement to get a allow or clear the route with any authorities.

However bear in mind this huge caveat: Thomas warns that,

“If a funeral procession have been performed to be able to disrupt site visitors or trigger bother for different highway customers, then it’s doubtless some regulatory authority may very well be referred to as upon to manage the disruption. Such issues may very well be seen as misuse of the statutes by deliberating invoking the funeral legislation privileges. Organising a mock funeral procession as a direct motion would doubtless be seen as a ‘violation of the general public order’ (a obscure idea that may be stretched to incorporate any variety of issues) and members may very well be handled with hostility by legislation enforcement.”

In Thomas’s a long time of expertise with site visitors legislation he has by no means heard of a case the place somebody misused the funeral procession legislation. Some issues are sacred, and must be saved that method. However if you happen to ever need to honor a buddy or member of your loved ones with a car procession that doesn’t depend on automobiles, it’s good to know there’s room within the legislation to make it occur.

Contact Jonathan at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, through e mail at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or cellphone/textual content at 503-706-8804. Additionally, if you happen to learn and admire this website, please grow to be a supporter.