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Traffic Optimization: Cyclists Should Roll Past Stop Signs, Pause At Red Lights
Lasrick writes: "Joseph Stromberg at Vox makes a good case for changing traffic rules for bicyclists so that the 'Idaho stop' is legal. The Idaho stop allows cyclists to treat stop signs as yields and red lights as stop signs, and has created a safer ride for both cyclists and pedestrians. 'Public health researcher Jason Meggs found that after Idaho started allowing bikers to do this in 1982, injuries resulting from bicycle accidents dropped. When he compared recent census data from Boise to Bakersfield and Sacramento, California — relatively similar-sized cities with comparable percentages of bikers, topographies, precipitation patterns, and street layouts — he found that Boise had 30.5 percent fewer accidents per bike commuter than Sacramento and 150 percent fewer than Bakersfield.' Oregon was considering a similar law in 2009, and they made a nice video illustrating the Idaho Stop that is embedded in this article."
How common are Stop signs in the US?
In the UK, "Give Way" (i.e. "yield") signs outnumber them 100-to-1 or more. You normally only find Stop signs at blind junctions (mostly in places where the road layout hasn't changed since the middle ages).
Invert that ratio and you get the US.
Basically, traffic laws in the US are optimised to generate maximum fine revenue for the local police so they are designed to create as many violations as possible with no regard for safety. At the extreme end of the scale you've got red light cameras which might as well be called "murder cameras" for the number of people they kill.
The evidence is very clear that if you actually want safety on roads the way to get it is with fewer or no rules and signs, but since that directly contradicts the reveune purpose of having the signs and rules it would take a regime change to see that happen.
OK. Rule 1 - you don't pay road taxes, you don't get to use the road.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Problem isn't that you can stop fast, it's that a lot of bikers don't stop, even now.
That's because they genuinly believe that they have more rights on the road then others. And they today cause more accidents than most vehicles in the traffic, so giving them more leiniency is just asking for trouble.
And all these statements about giving bikers more freedom in traffic, they're all coming from people who don't really drive, just ride bikes. And it again boils mostly down to the fact that they think they are better, and should have more rights because of it.
Same thing with vegans, who want to ban all meat. It's a superiority complex, and they need to get over it.
I'm not strolling out into traffic, demanding that all cars stop for me, on foot, bike og in a car. Geez, learn to respect others you dumbkopfs...