Oregon · Handbook chapter 6 · 6 min read

Chapter 6: Sharing the road

Oregon rules for pedestrians and crosswalks, white canes, school zones and the 20 mph school speed, bicycles and bike boxes, motorcycles, large vehicles, school and transit buses, funeral processions, stopped vehicles, emergency vehicles, police stops and work zones.

Why this chapter matters

Oregon's pedestrian and school-zone rules are stricter than many states'. You need the exact distances: 6 feet at signals, 20 mph in school zones, 500 feet behind emergency vehicles.

Pedestrians

People walking or rolling (skateboards, scooters, wheelchairs) are pedestrians. There is a crosswalk at every intersection, marked or not; an unmarked crosswalk is at least 6 feet wide.

A pedestrian is crossing once any part of them, or a cane, wheelchair or bicycle, moves onto the road. Stop and stay stopped when they are in a crosswalk and in your lane, the lane next to yours (including a bike lane), or the lane you are turning into.

• Turning at a signal, wait until the pedestrian is at least 6 feet from the lane you are turning into.
• Turning without a signal, wait until they are past your lane and the next lane.
• Never pass a vehicle stopped at a crosswalk.
• You need not stop for someone on the other side of a safety island.
• Do not stop with your car over the crosswalk.
• Crossing a sidewalk from a driveway, alley or parking lot, stop before the sidewalk and yield.

A pedestrian who is blind, or deaf and blind, with a white cane or guide dog: stop and stay stopped until they have crossed the entire road, even if your light is green.

School zones

• A five-sided yellow school sign marks a school zone or crossing.
• A school speed zone limits you to 20 mph from the SCHOOL SPEED LIMIT 20 sign to the END SCHOOL ZONE sign.
• Flashing light sign: 20 mph whenever the light flashes.
• School hours sign: 20 mph from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on school days. If unsure, slow to 20.
• When children are present sign: 20 mph any time children wait at or walk in a crosswalk, or a traffic patrol member is helping them.
• Stop for children entering a crosswalk or when a crossing guard signals, and stay stopped until they clear it.

Bicycles

• Do not drive or park in a bike lane. You may cross it to turn or use a driveway, but do not travel in it to prepare for a turn.
• Yield to bicyclists in a bike lane or on a sidewalk before turning across them, and at intersections as for any vehicle.
• Above 35 mph, pass a bicyclist in your lane only with enough room that you would not hit them if they fell.
• If you cannot pass safely, stay behind.
• Bike box (green box at a signal): stop behind it, not in it. No right turn on red there; on green, signal and yield to bicyclists on your right.
• A sharrow (two chevrons over a bicycle) means the lane is shared.
• Motorized wheelchairs and scooters may use bike lanes; yield to them the same way.

Motorcycles and mopeds

They are hard to see and to judge. Yield to an oncoming motorcycle as to any vehicle; waiting until it passes is safest. Leave more following distance. Motorcycle turn signals may not cancel by themselves, so make sure a rider is really turning. It is illegal to share a lane with a motorcycle or moped.

Large vehicles

Large vehicles need about three times the distance to stop.

• If you cannot see the driver in their side mirror, they cannot see you.
• Do not stop too close behind; they can roll back.
• Pass quickly and move back only when you see the entire front of the vehicle in your mirror.
• Never cut between a turning truck and the curb, and never cross behind one that is backing.
• Smoking wheels on a hill can mean brake loss: leave space and do not pass.
• Meeting a pilot vehicle, slow and keep right; following one, leave more space.

Buses

• Amber lights on a school bus mean it is about to stop: prepare to stop. Red lights mean stop before reaching the bus and stay stopped until they go off.
• On a divided highway with an unpaved median or barrier, only traffic on the bus's side stops. A painted median or turn lane does not divide the road: all lanes stop.
• Treat flashing lights on worship and worker buses the same way.
• Yield to a transit bus re-entering traffic when its YIELD sign flashes.

Other vehicles

• The slow-moving vehicle emblem is a red-bordered fluorescent orange triangle.
• Loads extending 4 feet or more behind a vehicle need a red flag at least 12 inches square, or a red light visible 500 feet in poor visibility.
• Funeral processions may go through intersections without stopping. Yield, and never join or cut into one.

Stopped vehicles, emergencies and police

• On a road with two or more lanes your way, when you approach any stopped vehicle with flashing lights, change lanes so you are not next to it, or slow to at least 5 mph below the limit.
• Do not drive over fire hoses unless told to.
• For an emergency vehicle using lights or siren, pull as far right as safely possible and stop, not in an intersection. Afterward, stay at least 500 feet behind it.
• Police stop: pull right and stop, turn off the engine, keep your hands on the wheel, stay in the car, show documents only when asked, and turn on the interior light at night.

Work zones

Orange devices mark work zones. Fines are doubled in all work zones, and you must yield to workers. A posted work zone speed applies at all times, even when no workers are visible, until an END WORK ZONE SPEED LIMIT sign or other speed sign. Obey flaggers and automated flagger devices: stop on the red light with the arm down, and go when the yellow light flashes and the arm is up. Do not follow construction vehicles.