Is section 452 of the California Vehicle Code applicable to a person riding a bicycle?

In La Fleur v. Hernandez, 84 Cal.App.2d 569, 574, 191 P.2d 95, it was questioned whether that section was applicable where the passenger was riding on the handlebars of a bicycle. It concluded, however, that the error, if any, was not prejudicial.

Page 58

Section 31 of the Vehicle Code defines a vehicle as a 'device in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be propelled, moved or drawn upon a highway, excepting a device moved by human power * * *.' That section especially eliminates a bicycle in the definition of a vehicle. Section 32 defines a motor vehicle and likewise excludes a self-propelled bicycle. The only section of the Vehicle Code which could possibly include it is section 452, which provides that every person riding a bicycle or riding or driving an animal upon a highway shall be granted all of the rights and shall be subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle, but this division (9) excepts those provisions which by their very nature can have no application. Section 596.5 is included [144 Cal.App.2d 367] within division 9 (traffic laws). It therefore appears that it might possibly apply to riding a bicycle upon a highway but it would be difficult to hold that it applied to a horse being ridden bareback and double. Apparently, in James v. Myers, 68 Cal.App.2d 23, 156 P.2d 69, a similar question arose where a motorcycle operator and his companion were riding on the single seat of the vehicle intended and designed for the exclusive use of the operator. The court held it was a violation of section 596.5 of the Vehicle Code. If it could be applied to a motorcycle under section 452, the trial court was justified in submitting the question of its application to a bicycle to the jury. No prejudicial error resulted in this respect.