Massachusetts passing-on-right law

We’ll start with a video where a motorist abruptly changed lanes to pass a vehicle on the right at speed and had to swerve left to avoid striking a bicyclist who had been concealed by the vehicle being passed. Here is a shortened version. The full video is on YouTube.

I’ve also seen a YouTube crash compilation where a motorist doing the same thing ran into the back of a slow truck. Trigger warning: this didn’t turn out as well as the incident in the other video. The car was smashed and the person or persons in it almost certainly died. So, skip over it if you prefer.

The motorists in both incidents assumed incorrectly that all traffic in the right-hand lane would be going at least nearly as fast as the traffic in the next lane — or that there was simply no traffic in the right-hand lane. These incidents reinforce the point that faster traffic’s passing on the left, and slower traffic’s leaving room for passing on the left when that is safe, are preferable — as well as the need to avoid driving into a blind spot when passing on either side. — which is more difficult when passing on the side opposite the driver’s seat. Massachusetts law is more stringent about passing on the right than the law of many other states — Chapter 89, Section 2 says:

The driver of a vehicle may, if the roadway is free from obstruction and of sufficient width for two or more lines of moving vehicles, overtake and pass upon the right of another vehicle when the vehicle overtaken is (a) making or about to make a left turn, (b) upon a one-way street, or (c) upon any roadway on which traffic is restricted to one direction of movement.

The exception for one direction of movement allows passing on the right on a one-way street or one with a median barrier.

However, this provision does not address the risk of unsafe overtaking into a blind spot.

Massachusetts law on the other hand gives bicyclists carte blanche to overtake on the right — in the bicycle section, Chapter 85 Section 11B:

… the bicycle operator may keep to the right when passing a motor vehicle which is moving in the travel lane of the way …

Also strengthened in Chapter 90, Section 14:

When turning to the left within an intersection or into an alley, private road or driveway an operator shall yield the right of way to any vehicle approaching from the opposite direction, including a bicycle on the right of the other approaching vehicles, which is within the intersection or so close thereto as to constitute an immediate hazard. It shall not be a defense for a motorist causing an accident with a bicycle that the bicycle was to the right of vehicular traffic.

This is inconsistent with the law for other vehicle operators, and unlike the law in any other state, in that it requires motorists making left turns to yield to bicyclists concealed by vehicles which they are overtaking on the right. The provision in Chapter 90, Section 14 was introduced only a few years ago by a lawyer who regarded it as a way to stand up for cyclists’ rights. It places responsibility on motorists to avoid crashes which only bicyclists can prevent.Like this one in Somerville:

I don’t know of a case yet in which it has been tested in court.