Washington Bike Laws
Looking for information on Legislation? Check out our Legislative Issues page.
Laws
Everyone biking, driving, or walking needs to understand and follow the current laws and rules of the road.
- Summary listing of Washington State Bike Laws
- The Safety Stop: How Bikes Can Legally Treat Stop Signs as Yields when there is no traffic
- Vulnerable User/Safe Passing Law
- WSDOT: Washington State Bicycling Laws
- State Highways Sections Closed to Bicycles
- Electric Bicycles
- WSDOT: Washington State Pedestrian Laws
- Washington State Traffic Laws
- US Law on Bicycles
- Law Enforcement and Bicycle Safety
Download the 2021 updated Bike Law Pocket Guide (pictured right).
How Do Bike Laws Get Passed?
Washington Bikes leads the efforts in Washington state to pass better laws for bicycling. Our Advocacy page will tell you whether we have a current Action Alert for you to contact state legislators.
If you want to work for local ordinances such as Complete Streets or the Neighborhood Safe Streets Law (“20 Is Plenty”) Washington Bikes helped pass, start with the basics in our Bike Advocate Toolkit.
Helmets
Washington state does not have a statewide requirement to wear a bike helmet. Check the list linked here to know the law in local jurisdictions.
- Helmet Laws by Jurisdiction in Washington State
- Safe Kids USA (choose WA under “Find Coalitions” for a list of organizations around the state that can help with low-cost helmets)
- Helmets in King County (includes list of free/low-cost helmet providers)
- prorider.com (bulk-order low-cost helmets)
- helmetsrus.net (bulk-order low-cost helmets)
Articles, Other Information
- What to do after a crash – By Seattle Attorney John Duggan
- Mentoring Motorists – By Seattle Attorney John Duggan
If you’ve had a crash
We’re building a list of attorneys who specialize in bicycle-related legal opinions. Appearance on this list does not reflect a rating of their legal abilities–we leave that to systems that are set up for it. We list them because they specialize in Washington state bike law and they’re engaged with WA Bikes in helping work for better laws.
This list was updated on 6/22/22
- John Duggan (Seattle)
206/343-1888
john@dugganbikelaw.com
www.dugganbikelaw.com- Catherine Fleming (Seattle)
206.453.2558
cf@cfleminglaw.com
www.seattle-injuryattorney.com- Sean Kuhlmeyer (Seattle)
206/695-2568
Sean@EmeraldCityBikeLawyer.com- Harvey Grad (Seattle)
206/275-2923
harv@lawyerseattle.com- Bob Anderton (Seattle)
206/262-9290
bob@andertonlaw.com- Carter Hick (Olympia)
360-943-7744
carter@carterhick.com