Liability Aspects of Bikeways

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Legal Research Digest 53: Liability Aspects of Bikeways explores the liability of public entities for bicycle accidents on bikeways as well as on streets and highways. The report also examines the federal laws that encourage the designation and use of bikeways; the elements of a claim in tort against a public entity for a bicycle accident, whether on a public street or some type of bikeway; defenses to bikeway accidents under tort claims acts and applicable to public entities; immunity for bicycle claims under some state recreational use statutes that in a majority of states are applicable to public entities; and public entities’ laws and policies on the accommodation of bicycles on streets and highways and the designation of bikeways.