The Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) published a Legal Research Digest on the liability aspects of bikeways.  The report should be of interest and use to Transportation planners, engineers, and officials; public and private sector attorneys and risk managers; financial officers, policy makers, and bicycling advocates.

The report reviews federal, state, and local laws and policies relating to bikeways and examines the legal risks incurred by public entities in providing or designating bikeways.  It examines claims against public entities for cycling accidents, defenses to such accidents under tort claims acts and state recreational use statutes, and the courts’ decisions.  The report concludes that “although there have been some tort claims against public entities for bikeway accidents, the defendant public entities prevailed in nearly all cases.”