Houston Bicycle Accident Lawyer

A person on a bicycle has the rights and duties of a driver. The rider keeps to the right when moving slower than traffic, with stated exceptions, and may take the lane when it is too narrow to share. In Houston a passing driver must change lanes or leave three feet, six in a truck.

The Texas Department of Transportation reports: “Pedalcyclist fatalities totaled 91 in 2025.” (Source: TxDOT, Texas Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Facts, calendar year 2025.) Inside the Houston city limits, 11 people on bicycles were killed and 32 were seriously injured in 2022, down from 12 and 47 in 2021. (Source: City of Houston, Vision Zero Annual Report 2022, Figure 1, from TxDOT crash records; the most recent city report we could open.)

The same rights as a driver

Section 551.101(a): “A person operating a bicycle has the rights and duties applicable to a driver operating a vehicle under this subtitle, unless: (1) a provision of this chapter alters a right or duty; or (2) a right or duty applicable to a driver operating a vehicle cannot by its nature apply to a person operating a bicycle.” A driver who would have had to yield to a car in the same position has to yield to the bicycle.

Where on the road a cyclist may ride

Under Section 551.103(a), “a person operating a bicycle on a roadway who is moving slower than the other traffic on the roadway shall ride as near as practicable to the right curb or edge of the roadway, unless:” The exceptions matter in almost every claim. They include when “the person is preparing to turn left at an intersection or onto a private road or driveway;” when “a condition on or of the roadway, including a fixed or moving object, parked or moving vehicle, pedestrian, animal, or surface hazard prevents the person from safely riding next to the right curb or edge of the roadway; or” and when the rider is in an outside lane that is “less than 14 feet in width and does not have a designated bicycle lane adjacent to that lane; or” “too narrow for a bicycle and a motor vehicle to safely travel side by side.” Subsection (c) adds: “Persons operating bicycles on a roadway may ride two abreast.” A rider in the middle of a narrow lane is usually where the statute allows, whatever the driver behind believed.

Houston’s safe-passing ordinance

Section 45-44 of the Houston Code of Ordinances protects “vulnerable road users,” a term that includes “A person operating a bicycle (including an electric bicycle), hand cycle, or other human-powered wheeled vehicle in the roadway; or” A driver passing one must “Vacate the lane in which the vulnerable road user is located if the highway or street has two or more marked lanes running in the same direction if such action can be taken safely; or” “Pass the vulnerable road user at a safe distance; or” and a safe distance is, in any event, “not less than 3 feet if the operator’s vehicle is a passenger car or light truck and not less than 6 feet if the operator’s vehicle is a truck (other than a light truck) or a commercial vehicle.” When turning at an intersection the driver must “yield the right-of-way to a vulnerable road user who is approaching from the opposite direction and is in the intersection, or is in such proximity to the intersection as to be an immediate hazard.” The ordinance also forbids the “right hook”: a driver may not “Overtake a vulnerable road user traveling in the same direction and subsequently make a turn in front of the vulnerable road user unless the operator is safely clear of the vulnerable road user.” “The penalty for any violation of this section shall be a fine not to exceed $500.00.” The fine is small; what matters in an injury claim is that the ordinance states in feet what the city requires of a passing driver.

Sidewalks, crosswalks and lights

Section 45-302 of the city code: “No person shall ride a bicycle upon a sidewalk within the central business district.” Elsewhere, when a person rides on a sidewalk, “such person shall yield the right-of-way to any pedestrian and shall give audible signal before overtaking and passing any pedestrian.” State law makes it an offense for a driver with criminal negligence to operate a motor vehicle within the area of a crosswalk when it “causes bodily injury to a pedestrian or a person operating a bicycle” (§ 545.428). At night, Section 551.104(b) applies: “A person may not operate a bicycle at nighttime unless the bicycle is equipped with: (1) a lamp on the front of the bicycle that emits a white light visible from a distance of at least 500 feet in front of the bicycle; and” and, on the rear, a red reflector or “a lamp that emits a red light visible from a distance of 500 feet to the rear of the bicycle.”