Now it's OK to ride a bicycle without a saddle in California

A new year means new laws in many states, although there are only a few that affect bicycling.

A ban on texting while driving in three states went into effect on Friday, promising to make the roads a little bit safer by protecting bicyclists and others from distracted drivers. That makes 19 states that prohibit the practice (see the list below).

About the only law addressing bicycles specifically is a strange one in California that allows a person to ride a bicycle without a seat if the bicycle was designed by the manufacturer to be ridden without a seat.

After reading that one over a couple of times, I searched high and low for an explanation and finally ran across one in the Sacramento Bee.

ElliptiGO

It turns out a couple of San Diego inventors have developed a bicycle called the ElliptiGo (pictured above). The machine is an elliptical trainer that's designed for outdoor use on two wheels. The operator powers it by a running motion that has no impact on the knees and hips.

Since it involved a running motion, there is no saddle. What inventor Bryan Pate discovered is that California had a law requiring bike passengers to have a seat — an attempt to prevent kids from hitchhiking on the handlebars.

Not wanting to run afoul of that law, the ElliptiGo founders got the local state senator to author a bill that allowed riding a bicycle without a seat.

In “Seatless bike design spurs change in state law,” the Sacramento Bee reports that only 18 production models are in existence, but retail sales is going to start in 2010.

There's more info at the ElliptiGo website and a film.

E-bikes

Meanwhile, the state of Illinois took a crack at regulating low-speed electric-powered bicycles, which it defines as having fully operable pedals and an electric motor of less than 750 watts.

The law requires that low-speed electric-powered bike operators have a valid Illinois driver's license and must be 16 or older. They cannot operate the e-bike in excess of 20 mph on any highway, street and roadway, and cannot ride the e-bike on any sidewalk. Otherwise, the rules that apply to bicycles apply to the low-speed electric-powered bicycles.

See details on SB 0236 at the Illinois General Assembly database.

Texting bans

Illinois also is one of three states that banned texting while driving in 2010. The others were Oregon and New Hampshire. The 19 states that prohibit texting while driving are:

Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Washington, as well as DC and Guam.

Read what the federal government says about texting while driving at Distraction.gov.

3-foot passing

No laws that require a 3-foot clearance for passing bicycles went into effect; the Colorado and Louisiana versions of those laws went into effect earlier in 2009.

The Jackson Clarion Ledger reports that bike advocates in Mississippi are seeking legislation that specifically makes it illegal to harass bicyclists. While the city of Tupelo has passed a law requiring a 3-foot gap when passing a bicycle, the legislator proposing the bike-friendly bill said he doesn't plan to include a passing provision.

Bicycle safety might be a legislative issue in Idaho in 2010.