Oregon Cycling Magazine

by Mark Lansing

Author’s note: This article was written before a well-publicized confrontation in Portland, where a motorist criticized a cyclist for running a stop light, and the cyclist responded by smashing the car with his bike. Needless to say, YHIHF would never endorse cyclists’ violence against anyone.  While we stand by our comments at the end of this article, we don’t advocate treating red lights as anything but mandatory stopping situations.

When it comes to bicycles, many things boil down to this inquiry:  Should their use be encouraged as a matter of social policy?

If the answer is “yes,” then many conclusions follow.  If the answer is “no,” the results are different.
Take, for example, the way that law enforcement personnel interpret the rules of the road.  If the use of bicycles is to be encouraged, it therefore follows that the laws protecting bicyclists from motorists must be strictly enforced.  But they often aren’t, leading by reverse reasoning to the conclusion that the use of bicycles should not be encouraged as far as many police officials are concerned.

Next consider the idea of allowing bicyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs.  As a confession, I will reluctantly admit that I might be doing this already.  Coming to a complete stop every time one sees a red octagon is a little nuisance in a motorized vehicle, but unclipped, foot-down halts are not so compatible with cycling.  It is easier to accelerate from a rolling position, and safer too.  Trying to get across a busy street when you need to reconnect your foot to the pedal first, and all of your momentum has been lost, can be a time-consuming process that leaves bikers in the line of fire longer than truly necessary.

Keep in mind that yield signs require vehicle operators to honor the right-of-way that goes to vehicles on the street to be crossed or merged with.  When yielding, you still need to stop for cross traffic.

But if there is nobody coming, what is the harm in rolling through the sign without stopping completely?  If the use of bicycles should be encouraged as a matter of social policy, it necessarily follows that yielding is better than stopping.  What is the harm, to be weighed against the benefit to all the cyclists who don’t need to come to a full stop, when there are no other vehicles to create a conflict?

Answer:  there isn’t any.

But will the legislators and citizens who don’t ride go for it?  Well, if they agree that bicycles should be encouraged as a matter of social policy, they probably would.  If there is no mobilized sentiment for such encouragement, however, it isn’t going to happen.

As a parting thought, consider this incident from last September’s Ride the Rogue, an annual Southern Oregon event that draws hundreds of riders here.  A companion and I were 55 miles into the 65-mile ride when we came to a stop sign in Grants Pass.  As I rolled up to it, I could see that there were no cars coming in either direction, and I proceeded to the left without coming to a complete stop.  Two blocks later another rider pulled up at a red light, and began to roundly berate us for our “yield not stop” riding.  On and on he went, mentioning something about how we were going to make the motorists “mad” (even though there weren’t any nearby), as though that were the primary factor to be considered.

Does it matter that no one was coming? I asked him.  I think his answer would have been “No,” but the question baffled him so much that he was speechless, then the light turned green (and I wasn’t spending any more time around this knucklehead than I absolutely had to).

Are you one of those riders who likes to critique other cyclists (while allowing the truly scary driving of some motorists to go unchallenged)?  Me treating stop signs like yield signs—such a big problem that some would confront me, a person they don’t know?  But they are afraid of making the guy in the car mad? Say it ain’t so.

Even some cyclists apparently don’t think that cycling should be promoted as a matter of social policy.  But bicycling is a non-polluting, non-consumptive and health-giving activity.  Support it and the people who do it.  Don’t roll up next to one whining about minor traffic infractions that don’t endanger anyone.  Go change public attitude and/or the law instead.  Okay?  Glad we had this chat.

Mark Lansing is an attorney in Grants Pass, Oregon and may be emailed at lansingatlaw@rvi.net.  On the day he submitted this article for publication, he treated a stop sign like a yield sign while riding his bike.  Right in front of a police officer.  But the deputy did not pursue him.  He would like to think that this officer elected not to in order to encourage bicycles as a matter of social policy.

Possibly Related

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• April 2008: Motorist's repeat harassment of bicyclists
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