Cyclists get treated badly twice: once by the car, and again by the assumption that a person on a bicycle was probably doing something wrong. The driver’s version reaches the police officer first, and it usually involves the words “out of nowhere.”

New York law is better to riders than most people expect. It is also less forgiving than it was a year ago, for reasons that have nothing to do with bicycles.

Start with the medical benefits, because they are yours already

A bicycle is not a motor vehicle, and that works in your favor. Because you were not in a motor vehicle when you were hit, the no-fault insurance on the car that struck you covers your treatment and part of your lost earnings — without you having to prove the driver did anything wrong, and whether or not you own a car or carry any insurance yourself.

The application has to be in within thirty days of the accident. That is the deadline that quietly ruins otherwise good cases.

To sue the driver for your pain and suffering on top of that, your injury has to clear the serious injury threshold. You may read online that the threshold does not apply to cyclists because a bicycle is not a motor vehicle. That is wrong, and acting on it would cost you the case. The threshold reaches you exactly because you are collecting those benefits; the two travel together.

If you were working when it happened — delivering food or packages — you have a second and separate set of claims, and they are covered on the delivery worker page.

Why fault matters more than it used to

New York used to reduce your recovery by your share of the blame and leave the rest. Since May 2026, in motor vehicle cases, an injured person more at fault than the driver recovers nothing at all. Not a reduced award — nothing. Half the blame still pays half. One point past it pays zero.

Cyclists are almost certainly inside that rule, through the same no-fault provisions that give you the medical benefits above. And fault gets assigned to cyclists casually — you were not in the bike lane, you went through a light, you had no helmet, you came up on the right. Some of that is real. Much of it is the driver’s account going unchallenged because nobody wrote anything else down.

The rest of this page is mostly about answering those arguments.

You have the rights of a vehicle, and the duties

New York gives a person riding a bicycle on a roadway all the rights and all the duties of a driver. That is the foundation of every cycling case, and it cuts in both directions honestly: the driver who turned across you owed you what they would owe a car, and the rules of the road applied to you as well.

Because these are state traffic statutes, a driver’s violation is not just evidence of carelessness. It is negligence in itself.

Dooring

This is the strongest statute a New York cyclist has, and most riders have never heard of it.

No person may open a vehicle door on the side available to moving traffic unless and until it is reasonably safe to do so. The duty is written in absolute terms. There is no exception for where the cyclist was in the lane, no allowance for the door being opened only a little, and no requirement that the cyclist have been anywhere in particular.

Two details that matter:

  • It says “no person,” not “no driver.” A passenger who doors you is liable in their own right. So is a rideshare passenger climbing out on the traffic side — which can bring the driver and the company into the case alongside them.
  • It covers leaving a door open, not just swinging it out, for longer than needed to load or unload.

If you were doored, the parked car’s plate is the case. Get it or get somebody to get it before anyone drives away.

“You weren’t in the bike lane”

Riders are generally required to use a usable bike lane, or to keep near the right side of the road. What the insurance adjuster leaves out is the list of exceptions written into the same statute — and the exceptions are broad.

You are entitled to leave the lane to turn left, to overtake, and to avoid unsafe conditions — a list that expressly includes fixed or moving objects, vehicles, pedestrians, surface hazards, and lanes too narrow to share safely.

In real terms: a double-parked car in the bike lane, a delivery truck, a pothole, an open car door ahead of you, or a lane too tight to ride in safely are all reasons the statute itself says you may be where you were. New York City also prohibits stopping or standing in a designated bicycle lane. That rule is a City one, so it carries less automatic weight than a state statute — but the more useful point is usually about cause rather than labels: the vehicle blocking the lane is the reason you were in the traffic lane at all.

“You went through a red light”

In New York City, a cyclist is allowed to cross an intersection following the pedestrian signal rather than the traffic signal, unless a sign or signal says otherwise, so long as they yield to people in the crosswalk.

So a rider who moved off on a walk signal while the traffic light was still red was following the law, not breaking it. That is worth knowing, because the accusation gets made confidently at the scene and it is often simply wrong.

Helmets

There is a lot of confident nonsense written about this, so here is the honest position.

New York does not require an adult on an ordinary bicycle to wear a helmet. The helmet requirements in the statute cover children under fourteen, and riders of the fastest class of e-bike.

For the riders the statute does cover, it is emphatic. Not wearing a helmet cannot be treated as negligence, cannot bar the claim, and cannot reduce the damages. For a child struck while riding without a helmet, the point is closed.

For an adult, it is genuinely unsettled, and you should be told that rather than reassured. Insurers do sometimes argue that going without a helmet should reduce compensation for a head injury, borrowing from an older New York case that allowed seat belt non-use to be raised in reducing damages. No New York court has squarely decided whether that reasoning extends to an adult cyclist. There are good arguments it should not. It is not a settled question, and anyone who flatly tells you a helmet cannot be raised against you is overstating it.

None of which is a reason not to bring a case. It is a reason to have it handled by somebody who knows the argument is coming.

If the driver fled, had no insurance, or drove a City vehicle

A fund exists to stand in for missing insurance, and it can cover both your medical benefits and a claim for the injuries themselves. It enforces its conditions strictly, and one of them ends cases: a hit and run has to be reported to the police within twenty-four hours.

After being knocked off a bike, a lot of people simply want to get home. That is the moment the case is usually decided. If the driver left the scene, a police report filed that same day is worth more than anything done in the year afterward.

There is also an open question in your favor here. The new fifty-one percent bar is tied to the no-fault system. Where the car that hit you was uninsured or was never identified, there is a real argument the bar does not reach your case at all. No court has ruled on it.

And if it was a City bus, a sanitation truck or another government vehicle: ninety days to serve a notice of claim, not three years, then roughly a year and ninety days to sue. The notice has to go to the right entity, and a bus is usually the Transit Authority rather than the City.

What to do in the first week

  • Get the no-fault application in. Thirty days.
  • Do not let the bicycle be repaired or thrown out. The damage pattern shows the direction and force of the impact, and it is evidence. Photograph it from every angle and keep it.
  • Photograph the road: the lane, what was blocking it, the sightlines, the light sequence at the corner.
  • Ask about cameras early. Businesses, buildings and buses record, and most systems overwrite within two to four weeks.
  • Keep the helmet if you were wearing one, damaged or not.
  • Get evaluated even if you feel able to walk away. Gaps in treatment get used against you.

Frequently asked questions

I wasn’t wearing a helmet. Does that end it?

No. There is no requirement for adults in New York, and for children the law expressly says it cannot be held against them. For an adult it is an argument an insurer may try in reducing damages for a head injury, and whether it is even allowed here has never been decided. It does not stop you having a claim.

I was doored. Isn’t the parked car just parked?

Opening a door into traffic is its own violation, and it is a strong one. Whoever opened the door is responsible for doing it safely — driver or passenger. What you need is identification of that car, which is why the plate is the first thing to secure.

I don’t have insurance of my own. Am I covered?

Yes. The no-fault coverage comes from the car that hit you, not from you. You do not need a policy, a car, or a driver’s license for it.

The driver says I came out of nowhere and the officer wrote it down.

A police report records what somebody told an officer who did not see the accident, usually the person who was not taken away in an ambulance. It binds nobody. What changes it is camera footage, witnesses, the damage on the bicycle and the vehicle, and the road itself — and all of that is gathered early or not at all.

I was on an e-bike. Same rules?

Mostly, for a hit by a car. Class 1, 2 and 3 e-bikes and stand-up scooters are legal in New York City, and you still get no-fault benefits from the striking vehicle and still face the serious injury threshold. The fastest class carries a helmet requirement for everyone. If you were working, the delivery worker page covers the rest.

My child was hit riding to school.

A child under four cannot be found negligent at all, and an older child is judged by what is reasonable for a child of that age rather than an adult. The helmet question is closed in a child’s favor by statute. If a school bus or City vehicle was involved, the ninety-day notice of claim applies and is not extended by the child’s age — that one catches families every year.

How long do I have?

Three years against a private driver. Ninety days for a notice of claim if a government vehicle was involved. Thirty days for the no-fault application. Twenty-four hours to report a hit and run. Two years from the date of death in a fatal case.

Talk to us

If you were hit while riding in Staten Island or Brooklyn, the things worth doing this week are the no-fault application, keeping the bicycle, and getting somebody to the scene and to the cameras before they overwrite.

Call 718.701.2776 (toll-free: 800.310.5520) or contact us. Consultations are free. If we don’t recover money for you, we don’t get paid.

More on these claims

Attorney Advertising. This page is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed by reading this page or submitting an inquiry. This page states New York law as of September 2026.