Mason County, WA Mobility & Curb Rules: Bike Lane Rules (2026)

Section 10.52.580 sets three roadway-riding duties for bicyclists in the unincorporated county. Subsection (a) requires a person operating a bicycle on a roadway to ride as near the right side as practicable, while exercising due care when passing a standing vehicle or one moving in the same direction, language that mirrors the state's basic ride-right rule rather than creating a marked bike-lane standard. Subsection (b) limits group riding to two abreast on an ordinary roadway, except on a path or part of a roadway set aside exclusively for bicycles, where riders may ride more than two abreast.

Subsection (c) is the mandatory-path rule: wherever the county has provided a usable adjacent bicycle path, cyclists must use it and may not use the roadway instead. Because Chapter 10.52 was adopted by Resolution 78 in 1970 as a transplant of RCW 46.61.755 through .780, the same duties that apply to a vehicle driver, such as obeying stop signs and signaling turns, apply to a cyclist under Section 10.52.565, except where the special bicycle sections in 10.52.560 through 10.52.590 displace them. Section 10.52.590 separately requires a bicycle used after dark to carry a front lamp visible five hundred feet and a rear reflector visible from fifty to three hundred feet, plus a working brake able to skid the wheels on dry pavement.