Bicycle and moped riding — Missouri Permit Test

On public streets and highways a bicycle or moped rider has the same rights and responsibilities as a motor vehicle operator, and must always ride with traffic, never against it.

Riding against traffic doubles the closing speed and puts the rider where no driver is looking.

Always ride with traffic, never against it.

A rider keeping to the right should leave space between themselves and the hazards found at the road edge, such as ditches, gutters, sand, and gravel shoulders.

Riding in the gutter is not the same as riding safely to the right. The edge is where the debris that puts a bicycle down collects.

The right edge of the road often has hazards like ditches, gutters, sand, and gravel shoulders. Leave space between yourself and these hazards as needed for safety.

A rider may move toward the middle or left of the lane when making a left turn, avoiding hazards, where the lane is too narrow to share, or where there is a right-turn-only lane and they are going straight.

Four reasons to take the lane, and every one of them is about not being trapped.

There is a right-turn-only lane and you are going straight.

On a one-way street bicyclists may also choose to ride as far left as is safe.

With no oncoming traffic, the left edge is as good as the right, and sometimes better for a left turn ahead.

On a one-way street, bicyclists may also choose to ride as far left as is safe.

The law does not allow a moped to be ridden on any part of the federal interstate highway system.

Interstate traffic moves at seventy. A machine limited to thirty has no way to be safe there.

The law does not allow you to ride a moped on any part of the federal interstate highway system.

Missouri state law does not require a bicycle or moped rider to wear a helmet, though a safety-certified helmet can prevent serious head injury or death.

The law leaves it to you. The physics does not: this is the one piece of equipment that changes what a crash does to your head.

State law does not require you to wear a helmet.

To drive any motorized bicycle such as a moped on the public streets, you must have a valid driver license.

No motorcycle endorsement is needed, but the ordinary license is. A moped on the street is a vehicle in traffic.

To drive any motorized bicycle such as a moped on the public streets, you must have a valid driver license.

A motorized bicycle has a motor of not more than 50 cubic centimeters, produces less than three gross brake horsepower, and can do no more than 30 miles per hour on level ground.

Three limits together make the definition. A machine past any of them is a motorcycle, and needs the endorsement.

propelling the device at a maximum speed of not more than 30 miles per hour on level ground.

Which way must a bicycle or moped be ridden on a Missouri public street?

With traffic, never against it. Riding against traffic doubles the closing speed and puts the rider where no driver is looking. Missouri Driver Guide, p.31: “Always ride with traffic, never against it.”