Are large groups of cyclists – for example, 10 or 20 – allowed to take up the whole lane, whether they’re riding side by side or single file? This forces a passing vehicle to have to cross over into the opposite lane in order to pass. This happens north of the city all the time in the warmer months. – Nelson, Toronto
Cyclists have a right to ride on the road, whether they’re solo or in a group, legal experts said.
Although most provinces ban bikes riding side by side, Ontario allows it – as long as the bikes don’t block traffic.
“Cyclists can ride side by side. There’s nothing in [Ontario’s] Highway Traffic Act to say you’re not allowed to do that [unless] it’s going to impede the normal flow of traffic,” said Patrick Brown, a Toronto-based lawyer who specializes in cycling-related cases. “[That means] if you’re in a single lane and you’re riding two across and there’s a vehicle behind you, you should move into a single line.”
It gets complicated. In Ontario, the law doesn’t actually mention riding side by side, but it does say that slower vehicles should move “as close as practicable” to the right edge of the roadway to allow faster vehicles to pass them.
In practice, that means that bikes can ride side by side as long as cars can pass. So, if there are multiple lanes going in one direction, bikes can ride side by side as long as they stay in the rightmost lane, Brown said. If there’s a single lane and passing is banned by a sign, then cyclists should switch to single file and go as far to the right as they safely can, he said.
Some Ontario municipalities have bylaws banning side-by-side riding, Brown said.
Toronto and Ottawa both revoked their side-by-side bans years ago after a push by cycling groups. Brampton still has a ban, for example, but the city’s active transportation advisory committee has recommended ending it, David Laing, chair of BikeBrampton, a volunteer pro-cycling group, said in an e-mail.
Most other provinces ban riding side by side – Saskatchewan is the only other province that allows it, said David Shellnutt, a Toronto-based lawyer who specializes in cycling-related cases.
So, are there any limits on how many bikes can be in a pack – or, as cyclists call it, a peloton?
While Quebec, for instance, limits a group of cyclists to 15 (all single file), most other provinces, including Ontario, don’t.
Safety in numbers?
Riding two abreast may be safer than riding single file, Shellnutt said.
“There are drivers who don’t want to pass cyclists the way they would pass another vehicle. They prefer to come up close to them because they don’t want to wait for oncoming traffic to pass,” Shellnutt said. “That creates such a hazardous situation, so cycling clubs prefer to ride side by side because it forces motorists to treat us like a motor vehicle.”
Shellnutt pointed to a 2021 tweet from Ottawa police that said riding side by side “forces vehicles to properly overtake them instead of trying to squeeze by too closely in the same lane. In larger groups, it also allows drivers to overtake the group faster by not having a long line of cyclists in a row.”
So, as a driver, if you see cyclists on the road, don’t follow too closely and wait until you can safely pass them, Shellnutt said.
“Unless you’re an emergency room doctor travelling [to the hospital] in a rush, you can probably wait the four seconds to pass,” he said.
While some drivers think bicycles are a nuisance on the road, they are vehicles under the law, Shellnutt said. Generally, bikes have the same right to be there as cars – unless bikes are specifically banned.
In Ontario, for instance, cyclists are banned from the 400-series highways but allowed on other roads, Ontario Provincial Police said in an e-mail.
“A lot of these rules are common sense,” Brown said. “So common sense is to allow faster-moving traffic to go around you, so long as it’s reasonably safe to do so. At the same time, if you feel more safe as a cyclist to be [in the middle of] the lane, then you can do so.”
So, for instance, while the law says cyclists have to keep to the right side of a lane, they can ride down the middle if they’re avoiding hazards like debris, gravel, potholes or snow, Brown said.
If there’s a paved shoulder, it may be safer to ride on it, but you’re generally not required to by law.
Drivers must follow the law, too. In Ontario, drivers must stay at least one metre from a cyclist when passing them.
“If you fail to give a cyclist one metre, then in all likelihood you’ll hit them,” Brown said, adding there’s a good chance they’ll be seriously injured or killed in a contest with a two-ton vehicle.
Drivers need to remember that cyclists are vulnerable on the road, Brown said.
In Ontario in 2021, the most recent year with complete statistics available, 16 cyclists were killed and 1,609 were reported injured.
“I think any cyclist would probably tell you that they have to anticipate people making illegal turns, people not giving one metre, people not following the rules,” Brown said. “Some drivers would say that some cyclists do the same thing, but there’s a power imbalance of size, weight and speed. A cyclist could die or get seriously injured … and the driver of the car gets maybe a small ding on their vehicle, a small fine and goes home.”
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