common sense traffic law
Doing my local bloggist duty to spread the word. The Strib is doing an informal poll on whether it’s a good idea to allow cyclists to essentially treat stop signs and yields and stop lights as stop signs, proceeding when it’s safe to do so. Surprisingly enough, it’s potential state legislation, proposed by Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, and Sen. Jim Carlson, DFL-Eagan. A suburbanite even!
As others have noted, many cyclists have long used this common sense approach to riding in traffic. When you’re earning your own momentum with real physics class-style sweat-inducing work, making a complete stop becomes a tedious thing. Boo hoo! you say, you’re riding a bike for exercise, right? What’s the big deal?
Try this scenario: you’re riding a bike home alone, late at night and hit a red light. There isn’t a car within view, but current traffic law says you should wait several minutes there until the light changes to proceed. No matter how tony the neighborhood, a pedestrian wouldn’t stand in the middle of an intersection waiting for a light to change; you would feel too vulnerable, and it’s the same for a cyclist. Substitute being alone for being cold, riding in the middle of winter, and it’s a health issue too.
The counter-argument is the slippery slope; that giving special consideration to cyclists will allow all sorts of law-flouting by 2-wheeled hooligans. That’s exactly what we’re planning, people, full-on cycling mayhem in the streets. Nothing could be further from the truth.
This proposed legislation is quasi-important not because it’s allowing cyclists to stop only optionally, it’s important because it introduces into law the idea that cyclists are a different class of road user. This could backfire, of course, and lead to further laws that would relegate cyclists to permanent 2nd-class status on the roads, requiring use of cycle paths, etc. Or it could lead to cementing our place on the roads and recognizing that (just like oversize trucks, for example), we belong on the roads but with some minor modifications that allow for the reality and nature of the vehicle.
So go vote already (at the end of the article).