So, after an hour-long bike ride this evening (something I'm trying to do more often), it occurred to me that the more I get back into bicycling, the more I find myself in favor of the "Idaho Stop".
For those not familliar, the Idaho Stop, named so because it's coded within Section 49-720 of the Idaho statutes, basically allows bicyclists to treat stop signs as a yield sign, or treat red traffic lights as a stop sign. It doesn't give cyclists carte blanche to enter the intersection willy-nilly...vehicles in or near the intersection still have the right-of-way as normal. But what it does is allow the bicyclist to not have to stop completely at stop signs in situations of no traffic, light traffic, or a gap in traffic. And since it takes a lot of energy to stop, start back up, and get back up to speed on a bicycle (I've read reports suggesting that upwards of 25% of the energy a bicylist exerts is because of stopping and starting), this enables bicyclists to maintain speed and save energy in these situations.
I used to be concerned about this law passing in other areas, namely due to unfamiliarity as well as safety concerns with cyclists thinking they could just enter the intersection without yielding to traffic. The latter is still a concern, but I find myself more in favor of it now. Funny what seeing the other side (or re-experiencing the other side) of things can do to one's viewpoint...
No comments:
Post a Comment