Scolded while riding the North Shore Century several weeks ago?

While riding the North Shore Century, I came up to a red light with several other riders, and there were motor vehicles stopped at the intersection. Many of us passed the vehicles on the right, to get closer to the intersection, and as I was passing a minivan, the passenger started to talk to me. He claimed to be a cyclist, and admonished me that passing vehicles as I was doing is against the law. I didn't know what to say, except that it probably wasn't the worst or most dangerous offense in the world. To be clear, no one ran a red light or stop sign, we just passed the long line of stopped cars, and then stopped at the intersection.

So I've been thinking about it since, and I have no idea what he was talking about. I read over the Illinois bicycle rules of the road, and I couldn't find anything I thought was relevant. Was he bullshitting me, or do cyclists break the law when they pass stopped cars at an intersection?

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Permalink Reply by Brendan Kevenides on February 4, 2013 at 1:52pm

Here's a more thorough legal analysis of this issue in light of Friday's Chi.Streetsblog's article on this subject:http://www.mybikeadvocate.com/2013/02/its-clear-as-mud-il-bicyclist...