MONTANA (January 8, 2025) – Montana legislators introduced a bill on January 7, 2025 to force cyclists to ride the wrong way in traffic. House Bill 124 is titled:
AN ACT REVISING BICYCLE LAWS; PROVIDING THAT BICYCLES MUST BE RIDDEN OPPOSITE THE FLOW OF TRAFFIC UNLESS RIDDEN WITH A FLAG VEHICLE ESCORT; AND REPEALING SECTIONS 61-8-602 AND 61-8-605, MCA.
Supposedly, the new language will make it safer to ride, “This change aims to enhance safety for both cyclists and motorists.”
The actual bill text, introduced by legislators Albus, Tilleman, and Ler, reads: Section 1. Riding on roadways. (1) A person operating a bicycle on a roadway without a flag vehicle escort shall ride opposite the flow of traffic. 12 (2) A person operating a bicycle on a roadway with a flag vehicle escort shall ride with the flow of traffic.
For more on the bill, see: https://fastdemocracy.com/bill-search/mt/2025/bills/MTB00017451/
To comment on the bill and track its status, see HB 124 in the Montana House Transportation Committee.
The League of American Bicyclists recommends always riding with the flow of traffic. Cycling West recommends the same.
Motorists will do whatever it takes to kill us.
That’s right, make an entire segment of traffic flow CHANGE DIRECTION. That’ll improve safety! A law written by the inexperienced & ignorant.
Wanna improve automotive safety? Put cell phone jammers in every steering column.
Basically a bill to bar cycling on roadways because entitled drivers do want to slow down and go around. Several years ago, Minnesota has a crazy non-cyclist legislator who had a whole book full of laws aimed at punishing cyclist Such as required training, classes, licensing, etc.
This is a great idea! It makes automobiles more aware of the bicycles. Most importantly the bicycles can have a chance to get out of the way if they see right in front of them a texting or drunk driver swerving into their lane. NHL player Johnny Gaudreau and brother killed from behind by drunk driver while riding bicycles. If they were riding against traffic they would have seen the idiot and jumped out of the way.
Glad I don’t live in Montana. This is just a stupid attempt to remove cycling from their localities.
The United States seems to be dumbing down in every aspect of life. Cycling will become more dangerous in Montana than it is now. How about dedicated and protected cycling lanes instead?
This is literally one of the dumbest laws to ever be made and that’s saying a lot.
Aims to enhance safety of both the cyclist and motorist….. Misses its aim badly! Reject this bill or show me as a cyclist in a neighboring state what I’m missing. I ride in the country on gravel and paved roads and in the city. This idea does make sense at all.
Correction, This idea doesn’t make sense at all!
Now, they can hit us head on and face certain death, especially around hidden turns. This proposal will kill more bike riders for sure. Let trained bike riders determine rules of the road for bicyclists.
A similar bill was proposed in the New Hampshire House a few years ago. It was unanimously tabled by the Transportation Committee and died a few months later. The same should happen to this bill.
As a cyclist, This bill if passed will cause more accidents. Both drivers and cyclists need to be aware of their surroundings! Dedicated cyclists lanes and enforcing no cell phones while driving a vehicle will also help decrease fatalities.
My message submitted to the transportation committee:
Dear Members of the Transportation Committee,
As a cycling safety educator and researcher for over 25 years, I am writing to express concern about HB124, “BICYCLES MUST BE RIDDEN OPPOSITE THE FLOW OF TRAFFIC.” For over 125 years, empirical evidence in the form of real-world crash data gathered in the US and abroad has supported the theory that riding a bicycle with the normal flow of vehicular traffic on that half of the roadway results in a much lower crash rate than bicycling against the flow of vehicular traffic. Riding against the flow of vehicular traffic increases the probability of intersection crashes by several times and generates head-on collision risks and emergency maneuver situations whenever bicycle operators meet oncoming vehicular traffic on the roadway. This is why every US state and every free nation requires bicycles to operated with the flow of traffic, with lights required on bikes to provide adequate visibility in darkness.
Big Mistake! This will put lives in danger.
I live in Montana and bike 100+ miles per week outside when the weather allows. There’s no way I’ll ever follow this if it becomes law. Perhaps they should focus on the DUI fatality rate first? Montana is worst in the nation by a wide margin.
This has to be the most moronic idea I have heard in the past 20 years. There are so many things wrong with this I cannot even state all of it. First, every driver making a right hand turn onto a roadway now has two way traffic to contend with as opposed to only one way. Most drivers only look left when turning right, they do not expect a cyclist at 20 mph coming from the other way. Next, how is a cyclist supposed to perform a right hand turn off a roadway??? Imagine a motorist turning left across traffic but yet a cyclist is travelling against traffic and the motorist is incapable of seeing that cyclist until they collide.
Also, imagine a cyclist coming down a hill at 35 mph and vehicles going uphill at 45….. an 80 mph head on collision? In the end I could go on and on and on but in the end it is not even really possible, all this is frankly is a ploy to eliminate cyclists off the roads.
Thank you for posting this. We must act as a community. I am a resident of MT and have reached out to the MT Legislative Transportation committee. Please voice your opinion. The more the transportation committee members hear constructive comments, the more likely we are to get the proposal tabled.
I hade faith in Montana but apparently some of the woke ass dumb asses made it there from California and are making laws …so so