I am an avid bike-rider living in Spokane (Washington State). Spokane is a fairly large city, with many bridges built across the Spokane River. One such bridge is the Maple Street Bridge, which was built in the late 1960s and four lanes set to 45 miles per hour and a caged sidewalk on the west side.
In the summer of 2015, I was riding my bike in the right-hand southbound lane, and my presence in the lane angered many of the drivers on the bridge. The speed limit on the bridge is 45 miles per hour, but when a driver encounters me, s/he becomes enraged and flies past my bike faster than the speed limit.
I lost track of how many times people screamed at me as they passed after the fourth time. Also one man drove so close to my bike that his car's wing mirror brushed my jacket. I consulted my Grandmother about the incident later and she told me that riding a bike across the Maple Street Bridge is illegal. However, I thought biking on sidewalks is also illegal, and the City of Spokane is pretty good about letting bikers know via signs where they can and cannot ride a bike. I did not see any such warning sign while approaching the bridge, and the approach to the bridge is about one quarter of a mile long.
This bridge as I have mentioned only has one caged sidewalk on the west side. Once I am on the bridge deck, I cannot turn around and I cannot enter the sidewalk because of the cage.
Why was I wrong to bike across the bridge?