The Idaho Stop, and Minnesota
The concept of ‘The Idaho Stop’ — allowing bicyclists to treat red lights and stop signs as stop signs and yield signs, respectively — is starting to gain recognition. People have not necessarily reached consensus on it, but at least it is being discussed.
A recent article in the Chicago Sun-Times notes that Minnesota has taken things a step further than the usual proposition:
In Minnesota, a bill imitating Idaho’s law was introduced into the Legislature in May. The bill allows bicyclists to treat both stop lights and stop signs as yields, according to bill sponsor Phyllis Kahn, a state representative whose district includes the University of Minnesota.
The SFBC’s Andy Thornley gets quoted:
In California, “We’ve been talking about it for a long time,” according to Andy Thornley, program director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. But the politics is “too daunting,” Thornley said. “There’s this public perception that bicyclists are already outlaws and renegades.”
Since the purpose of an ‘Idaho Stop’ law is to legally recognize the behavior of bicyclists as not being outlawed nor renegade-like, it seems like it might be a good idea to push for this legislation. At a minimum, the debate needs to be brought to the fore so we can know exactly who is against such a law, and why.
The framing of the issue as bikes vs. cars does not seem to seem correct to me. Instead, it seems to be a simple issue of ‘encoding common sense,’ as Rob Sadowsky, executive director of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation said in the article. Do we as a society wish to promote bicycling and common sense, or strict obedience to laws which do not make sense? If a law is inadequate, we need to work to change it. When we encode common sense in the law, then drivers will be forced to stop thinking of bicyclists as outlaws, and we can start looking forward to less icy relations from drivers when we push for new bicycle laws and infrastructure.
It may be the case, too, that the politics of pushing for this law are, indeed, too daunting in the short term. Still, I think it may be a worthy cause.
Leave comment (4)[p.s. The Forums are open for participation.]
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:35 pm
This does need to happen, and it certainly is common sense. I do this all the time. I swear, if I stopped at every stop sign and light on the way to school it would probably take me 1.5 times as long to get there.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
I do stop at every stop sign and light on my commute. It probably does take me longer but I don’t care. It’s not a race. I allow the time and follow the rules.
I am curious how the change in law might affect my bike driving habits.
August 21st, 2009 at 10:47 am
I am tired of bikers not following the rules that we all do. I almost was yesterday by a biker who didnt stop at a STOP Sign. Why shouldnt they have to follow the same rules as drivers?
August 21st, 2009 at 10:49 am
sorry for that, didnt include almost was “hit” yesterday. thanks