Opinion ID: 1187598
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Bicyclists Are Entitled to Crosswalk Protection

Text: To resolve the issues in this case, we must decide how to interpret the provisions of RCW 46.61.235(1) regarding the treatment of persons in crosswalks and RCW 46.04.400 defining pedestrians under Washington law. Allen contends the Court of Appeals and the trial court failed to apply the plain meaning of these statutes. Allen asserts motorists need only stop for pedestrians in crosswalks and that bicyclists are not pedestrians. Washington law now provides that [t]he operator of an approaching vehicle shall stop and remain stopped to allow a pedestrian to cross the roadway within an unmarked or marked crosswalk[.] RCW 46.61.235(1) (emphasis added). A pedestrian is defined as any person who is afoot or who is using a wheelchair or a means of conveyance propelled by human power other than a bicycle.  RCW 46.04.400 (emphasis added). And as Allen observes, RCW 46.61.755 gives [e]very person riding a bicycle upon a roadway the rights and duties of the driver of a vehicle[.] Thus, in Allen's view, Pudmaroff was not a pedestrian but, in effect, a motorist at the time of the accident. As such, he was the disfavored driver at the intersection and should have remained at the stop sign until the traffic on 277th Street had cleared. In an earlier case, Crawford v. Miller, 18 Wash.App. 151, 566 P.2d 1264 (1977), the Court of Appeals held a bicyclist, although not a pedestrian under Washington law, was entitled to the protection of a crosswalk as if a pedestrian. There, a truck was stopped in the outside northbound lane at an intersection. From the truck's right, Crawford stepped into an unmarked crosswalk, pushing her bicycle. In the middle of the lane, she mounted the bike and proceeded to ride across the street. She was struck by a vehicle that had moved into the inside northbound lane to pass the stopped truck. The Crawford court held RCW 46.61.755 did not apply to Crawford when she was in the crosswalk, because the statute pertained to a bicyclist upon a roadway. Id. at 153, 566 P.2d 1264. The court reasoned a bicyclist within a crosswalk was not a motorist on a roadway. The court found it irrelevant that Crawford had mounted her bike and ridden it over the crosswalk. At the time Crawford was decided, RCW 46.61.235(1) provided substantively the same protections as the statute now offers. Former RCW 46.61.235(1) provided a vehicle driver shall yield the right of way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk. See Laws of 1965, Ex.Sess., ch. 155, § 34. But the definition of pedestrian in RCW 46.04.400 was confined to persons afoot. Thus, Crawford was not a pedestrian within the meaning of RCW 46.61.235(1) at the time the case was decided. Although Crawford was not a pedestrian at the time she was in the crosswalk, the Court of Appeals essentially created a judicial rule that she and other bicyclists would be treated in a fashion akin to pedestrians when in crosswalks. The Legislature amended RCW 46.04.400 (defining pedestrian) and 46.04.670 (defining vehicle) in 1990 and 1991, respectively. As the Court of Appeals put it, [t]he question... is whether the Legislature's amendment of these two definitions indicates the Legislature intended to change the Crawford rule, and treat a bicyclist in a crosswalk the same as a bicyclist on any other portion of the roadwaythat is, entitled to none of the usual protections of the crosswalk. Pudmaroff, 89 Wash.App. at 933, 951 P.2d 335. The Court of Appeals reasoned as follows: the Legislature made no change to the principal statute construed in Crawford, RCW 46.61.755. We note also that the expansion of the definition of pedestrians to include human-powered conveyances other than bicycles does not indicate a legislative intent to change the law as to bicycles; bicyclists were not within the definition of pedestrian before the amendment. Nor does amendment of the vehicle definition to include bicycles change the rights and duties of bicyclists. Since 1965, RCW 46.61.755 has subjected bicyclists using a roadway to the rights and duties of vehicle drivers. But bicyclists are widely permitted to travel on sidewalks, and presumably must use crosswalks at intersections. Obviously here, the marked crosswalk was intended for users of the bike trial. The rules of the road cannot logically apply in crosswalks, nor does it make sense to permit use of a crosswalk by bicyclists and yet require them to yield to motorists as if in a vehicle. Pudmaroff, 89 Wash.App. at 933-34, 951 P.2d 335 (footnote omitted). Allen makes the same argument to us she made to the Court of Appeals. First, she contends, because bicycles operating on roadways or bike paths under RCW 46.61.750(2) and .755 are subject to the rules of the road, Pudmaroff failed to comply with RCW 46.61.190(2) which requires a vehicle approaching a stop sign at an intersection of roadways to yield the right of way to approaching traffic. Second, the Legislature's amendment of RCW 46.04.400 in 1990 to exclude bicycles from the definition of pedestrian makes the protections afforded pedestrians in crosswalks by RCW 46.61.235 unavailable to bicyclists, and Crawford is no longer good law. We believe neither argument carries the day for Allen. In support of her first argument, Allen cites Zahn v. Arbelo, 72 Wash.2d 636, 637, 434 P.2d 570 (1967), for the proposition that [t]he favored driver on an arterial protected by a stop sign has one of the strongest rights of way which the law allows. Supplemental Br. of Appellant at 7. While such proposition is true, it is also irrelevant here. Zahn is inapposite because it does not involve a crosswalk, and instead addresses the relative rights and duties of two vehicles meeting at an intersection of two roadways with one stop sign. Similarly, Allen's reliance on RCW 46.61.190(2) is misplaced as that statute addresses the duties of a vehicle driver approaching a stop sign at the intersection of two roadways. [1] The case at hand does not involve the intersection of two roadways. The Interurban Trail at issue is an improved multiuse path which may be utilized by pedestrians (i.e., walkers, joggers, roller bladers, wheelchairs, parents pushing baby strollers, etc.), as well as bicyclists, and therefore does not qualify as a roadway. See RCW 46.04.500 (defining roadway as that portion of a highway improved, designed, or ordinarily used for vehicular travel). [2] Nor does RCW 46.61.190(2) address the rights and duties of particular types of vehicles that can validly use a crosswalk (presumably since bicycles may use sidewalks, they may also use crosswalks). The statute is simply irrelevant here. When bicycles are operated on roadways, they are subject to the rules of the road. RCW 46.61.755. Moreover, if bicycles are operated on a bicycle path, they may be subject to the rules of the road, but it is not clear if this relates to bicycle lanes on roadways or bicycle paths separate from roadways or multipurpose trails. See RCW 46.61.750(2). Finally, RCW 46.61.755 exempts bicycles from the rules of the road as to those provisions of this chapter which by their nature can have no application. We hold RCW 46.61.190(2) and Zahn do not apply here because Allen cannot point to a specific statute treating a multiuse trail, as is present here, as a roadway; [3] and, more importantly, the accident occurred not on a roadway or a bicycle path, but in a crosswalk, to which special rules apply. Allen's second argument is that Crawford is no longer good law because the definition of pedestrian has changed. Allen's primary point is that RCW 46.04.400, as currently amended, now specifically excludes bicycles from the definition of pedestrian; and, had the Crawford court been faced with such definition, it would not have afforded the crosswalk protections of RCW 46.61.235 to bicyclists. However, the Crawford decision did not turn on the definition of pedestrian, but on the Court of Appeals' belief that RCW 46.61.755, which required bicycles operated on roadways to follow the rules of the road, does not apply to bicycles using crosswalks. Crawford, 18 Wash.App. at 152-53, 566 P.2d 1264. In any event, the 1990 amendment of RCW 46.04.400 did not substantively alter that statute's treatment of bicycles, as they were not included prior to the amendment. See RCW 46.04.400 (1976) (defining pedestrian as any person afoot). The Legislature is presumed to be familiar with judicial interpretations of statutes, and absent an indication it intended to overrule a particular interpretation, amendments are presumed to be consistent with previous judicial decisions. See, e.g., In re Marriage of Williams, 115 Wash.2d 202, 208, 796 P.2d 421 (1990). There is no indication from the legislative history of the 1990 and 1991 amendments in question that the Legislature intended to amend or repeal the 1977 holding in Crawford. The Legislature, in fact, broadened the protection of the crosswalk statute by expanding the definition of pedestrian to include wheelchairs and certain other wheeled devices. Laws of 1990, ch. 241, § 1. Additionally, the statutory protection for crosswalk users was strengthened when vehicles were required to stop, rather than merely yield, to crosswalk users. Laws of 1990, ch. 241, § 4. No mention is made anywhere in the legislative history of these amendments that the Legislature intended changes to the Crawford rule. Moreover, we do not give a hypertechnical reading of a statute so as to yield an absurd result. Duke v. Boyd, 133 Wash.2d 80, 87, 942 P.2d 351 (1997); Wright v. Engum, 124 Wash.2d 343, 351-52, 878 P.2d 1198 (1994). Allen's position, that crosswalk protections do not extend to persons riding bicycles, [4] puts every child in Washington riding a bicycle and using a crosswalk at risk. Such result is clearly contrary to the declared purpose of our State's traffic laws and regulations to encourage and enhance highway safety. See, e.g., RCW 46.90.005 and WAC 308-330-005 (both authorizing DOL to adopt a compilation of uniform traffic laws to encourage highway safety and enhance safe and efficient movement of traffic). [5] Equally absurd would be practical application of Allen's proposed interpretation. A hypothetical suggests the problem: Several groups of children return home from school by the Interurban Trail, some on foot, others on skateboards, roller blades and bicycles, and wait at the crosswalk for a clear opportunity to cross 277th Street, and, like Pudmaroff, they proceed only after traffic has stopped for them and after they have properly checked for oncoming traffic. If such group were hit in the crosswalk, under Allen's interpretation, the vehicle driver would be liable to all children except those on bicycles. Such interpretation and result make no sense. We believe Crawford remains good law in Washington.