This is important.
In the fall, I witnessed a friend, biking her daughter to school, get pulled over and ticketed by a cop, for rolling through (and turning right into a bike lane!) a stop sign. It’s one of those intersections where you can see so clearly in all directions, there is actually never a reason to actually stop here (if you are on a bike). The reflective yellow clad mother was in tears, the helmeted first grader was scared, and the cop had no mercy, he was a literalist.
My main issue I have with the “equal rights, equal responsibilities” rationalization for enforcing traffic laws designed for cars onto cyclists is that CARS OFTEN KILL PEOPLE, AND BIKES DON’T.
The wording in the new proposed law explicitly cites this huge difference in potential injury and damages as the primary argument for the bill. My only concern is that it could be seen as an attempt for cyclists to simply get around the law. I hope the conversation gets statistical, looking at this as an incentive for more people to bike, for biking to be more pleasurable, more efficient, more rewarding, to feel special, yes! If Portland wants to be the model of a bike friendly city, we need to make biking as attractive as possible, and the cops won’t stop ticketing for bullshit reasons till the laws are changed. Go BTA!!
Here are snippets from bikeportland’s article:
Exclusive: BTA will go for “Idaho style” stop sign law: “
The BTA hopes to make
it legal to roll through
stop signs.
(Photos © J. Maus)
The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA), a Portland-based non-profit with over 5,000 members statewide, has proposed a new law that would make it legal to roll through a stop sign while riding a bicycle in Oregon.
One tactic Rohde has found works well in explaining the proposal is to equate it to walking. ‘When you walk up to an intersection in a neighborhood and no one’s around,’ he said, ‘you don’t come to a complete stop. You just look around and then go if it’s safe. We’re just applying that same logic to biking.’
For the BTA, passage of the Idaho Stop Law would accomplish many things, including:
- It would make biking easier and more efficient (having to stop unnecessarily is a ‘deterrant to many people’),
- it would put an end to the long and controversial legacy of Police enforcement actions (a.k.a. ‘stings’) at stop signs so they could ‘focus more of their limited resources on high-risk intersections’,
- it would ‘eliminate the argument that cyclists are always breaking the law when they are actually acting in a very rational manner.’
(Via Bike Portland.)
