Looking Both Ways: Yielding to Common Sense

[XLFD]

Shortly after we learn how to walk as a toddler, we are introduced to life on the street.  Assisted by our parents and others, we walk through parking lots, along sidewalks and roads, and across streets.  As for the latter, we are constantly drilled to “look both ways” and wait until there is a break in traffic to cross.  We appreciate the presence of stop signs and stoplights, for they allow us to get through high-trafficked areas, but we realize they do not apply to our method of travel, as we need only “look both ways” or obey the pedestrian signals to cross roads.

 

 By age five, most of us are learning or have learned to ride bicycles.  City kids typically learn by riding first on the sidewalk.  Here we are taught to yield to pedestrians, “look both ways” when crossing driveways or alleyways for motorists driving in or out of them, and to “look both ways” before crossing on a crosswalk.  We may also be told to get off and push your bike across, because of the difficulty of getting the bike up to speed safely and quickly.  As a sidewalk-user, we again realize those stop signs and stoplights do not apply to us, as we need only “look both ways” or obey pedestrian signals to cross roads.

 

 Rural kids learn how to ride on country roads by riding with others who have more experience on less-trafficked roads.  Most of these roads will have stop signs where they meet other roads, and they may be told to stop and determine whether it is safe to cross.  However, the vast majority of these roads not only allow the cyclist to “look both ways” quite a distance either way, but also to hear cars coming from even further away.

 

This ‘dual-sensing’ of incoming traffic permits them, over time, to realize that a particular intersection is ‘safe’ when they can neither see nor hear threatening traffic coming.  Likewise, they also realize that stopping for no real reason not only allows traffic from either side of them to quickly (up to about 100 ft./sec) pose a threat to their bike slowly starting from a dead stop, but also encourages cars from behind them to pose a threat as well, especially if they are turning right.

 

After several years of “looking both ways” at driveways, alleys, and crosswalks, the city cyclist graduates to the streets, where he sees yield signs, stop lights, or stop signs at most intersections.  Yielding is by now second nature to them, and they quickly find out that they must yield even when they have the right of way or risk becoming a victim of a serious accident from vehicles that misjudge their speed or just don’t see the cyclist riding on the through street.  Having observed pedestrian signals, they understand and comply with the ‘forced’ yielding of stoplights readily.

 

But then there’s the stop sign.  When paralleling the street on the sidewalk, they needed only to yield at an intersection with adequate sight lines to both sides and continue.  When they are part of the street traffic must they stop, as the other vehicles do?

 

  According to the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), the rationale for installing a stop sign rather than a yield sign at an intersection is totally based on the speed, ability to sense cross traffic, and ability to stop of a vehicle operator.  Experienced cyclists desirous of a long life naturally slow down when they come to an intersection they have limited visibility/audibility at.  A cyclist going slow, being better able to sense traffic and braking its small mass quicker should perhaps not be held to the same standards as fast moving, dull sensing, heavy, slow-to-stop vehicles.

 

A motionless bicycle on a street is not very safe, and this happens whenever the cyclist halts due to necessity or because he feels its his duty to stop.  The cyclist becomes less visible, is less able to avert danger, and for all intents and purposes, is a pedestrian on the wrong side of the street.  Vehicles from behind may pin them against the curb, turn in front of them, or dangerously pass them as they cross the intersection.  Vehicles from ahead may turn left across their path as they slowly get to speed.  Meanwhile the cyclists attention is often diverted by clipping into their pedals and making sure they are in gear while starting, for if not they will inch across the intersection with traffic bearing down on them.  This hampers their ability to “look both ways” effectively.

 

The best fix for this safety problem would be to have the cyclist halt on the street as few times as possible, perhaps by yielding at stop signs; and while this may sound absurd to some drivers, it actually increases traffic flow for vehicles.  A cyclist who crosses a clear intersection will not hamper those vehicles behind him, as he might if he stopped.  Vehicles on the cross street do not have to slow down or stop because of a  cyclist straining to get across.  The cyclist himself keeps some of his precious momentum to conserve his strength, improve his visibility, traffic flow, and personal safety.

 

The benefits of this is not just theory, however.  The state of Idaho in 1984 passed a law which allowed a cyclist to treat stop signs as if they were yield signs, and it has been very successful.  A quick check at the safety stats over the years show cyclists in Idaho fare better than the average American cyclists for accidents and deaths.  In 2008, Idaho had two cyclist deaths, and neither were at intersections.  Bicyclists still get ticketed there for violating someone’s right of way when they do not “look both ways” and stop when necessary, but not for failing to halt for a stop sign. 

 

Most state laws are vague on the aspect of how a bicycle should obey a stop sign and whether it is an actual duty for them to do so.  There is no argument that they do have to yield the right of way at intersections as per the law, and a good consensus that they should do this in a manner that is safe for them and other road users, which facilitates traffic flow for as well.  Allowing them to “look both ways” and proceed when an intersection is clear is a way to do so.

[Edie Lindsey]

Nice argument, but I think there's still a lot of bikers who will never ride safely. I think there should be some sort of licensing process for bikes for riders over a certain age. Maybe then, we will be ready for this.

[XLFD]

I cease to be amazed at the adults and kids I see at the Ludington State Park riding their bikes as if there are no laws for bicycling inside the park. They go the wrong way on one way streets, crowd the whole pathway, buzz by pedestrians, etc. If these 'vacation-only cyclists' were the norm, I would agree with some of the road-raging motorists about bicycles. Same as for the trick riding kids down by the skate park operating under the watchful eyes of the LPD.

But they aren't, and most of the grown up cyclists you see in their spandex outfits follow the rules of the road with the possible exception of those rules which don't distinguish between a motorists and bicyclists safest use of the road.