Proposed in SF, bicycles don't need to stop at stop signs.

[canuguzzi]

The proposal says that bicycles can treat stop signs as yield signs. The idea is that resources should not be used to enforce low priority laws.

What could possibly go wrong?

With bicycles easily going faster than posted city speed limits, this could create huge impacts (pun intended) to pedestrians and other vehicles on the road, including motorcycles. We tend to be more observant than the typical sled driver but even so, with that proposal you'd have tobwatch for bicycles that just blow through stop signs.

The spped limit for going through a yield sign is 15 mph or conditions, whichever is slower.

Ever see a bicyclist try to stop in a hurry? It is a slide though but rarely a stop.

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

I can stop my bike on a dime

I am not coming to a full complete stop at sign nor light; I don't care if it's legal or not.

filtering and rolling stops on a bike are to non-bicyclists as lanesplitting is to non-motorcyclists..  if you havent mastered it, you cant understand the benefits or safety aspects, it just 'looks' dangerous; so the knee-jerk reaction is to say ban it.

I also refuse to wear a cycle helmet unless i'm mountainbiking..but  that's a whole 'nother ball of wax.

[JeffOlson]

 I don't come to a complete stop either when riding my bicycle.

[unclepete]

I almost never stop for stop signs when on bicycle either ; slow down enough to assess the situation , if I can't get all the way across I turn right and pedal slowly til I get a chance to cross . Un-clipping from pedals , putting a foot down and re-starting  is unnecessary ; most bicyclists can make it look like they stopped without actually stopping ( < 1 mph ) . Never blow through a stop sign at speed unless I can see for a long way ; that's for Darwin Award aspirants . 
One reason they may be considering this in SF is that it's hilly there , and it's hard to start again on a hill .

[PJPR01]

I can stop my bike on a dime

I am not coming to a full complete stop at sign nor light; I don't care if it's legal or not.

filtering and rolling stops on a bike are to non-bicyclists as lanesplitting is to non-motorcyclists..  if you havent mastered it, you cant understand the benefits or safety aspects, it just 'looks' dangerous; so the knee-jerk reaction is to say ban it.

I also refuse to wear a cycle helmet unless i'm mountainbiking..but  that's a whole 'nother ball of wax.

Wow...just wow.  Safety last here!  Legal or not, SF proposing this opens up an interesting legal situation...when a car hits a bicyclist who is going thru a stop sign and fails to yield, who is at fault now?  You have to be an idiot to believe that treating it as a yield makes sense...that would imply that the other direction has no stop sign or stop light...what if they do and you still collide.  The only time it makes sense to blow thru stop signs is when it's obvious there is no traffic, a situation which NEVER occurs in San Francisco unless it's maybe 3 am...bloody idiots these city council/planner folks making this proposal.

[canuguzzi]

A bicycle going 25 mph can't stop on a dime and better than anything else, in other words they can't, there are people run over by bicyclists to prove it.

How is blowing through stop signs the same as lane splitting. As it stands, one is legal (lane splitting) the other is not. A proposal is not the same as a passed law.

As for helmets, its your head.

[krglorioso]

Let the lawsuits begin!

Ralph

[Kent in Upstate NY]

Cali law says that since bikes and cars share the same roads they share the same laws. If the sign says stop, that is what you do. That said, when I lived in Chicago and biked to work, stop signs were, to me, merely a suggestion.

[mabajada]

Been a law in Idaho for quite a while. It's even called an Idaho stop

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_stop

[canuguzzi]

Mayor has threaten to veto. That sets up a huge confrontation between him and the bicycle coalitions. SF already had dedicated bike lanes, allows cars to cross yellow lines to go around bicycles and things like that.

I'm all for the bike lanes. The three riding abreast and expecting everyone else to drive around them, not so much. The stop sign thing? When you see this in practice, it isn't a slow down, look and proceed slowly, its blast through a hope no one gets run over, pedestrian or bicyclist. Happens fairly regularly.

[pikipiki]

Surely common sense says if a bicycle does no slow considerably for a STOP or Yield sign they fail to yield. Stop on a bicycle or motorcycle means putting a foot down (well at least for 95% of us) The ordinance, known as the Bike Yield Law, would instruct cops to treat cyclists who roll slowly and cautiously through stop signs as their lowest enforcement priority. It would, in essence, permit the so-called Idaho stop, in which a person on a bike is allowed to approach a stop sign, check for conflicts with drivers and people on foot, then roll through without coming to a complete halt—essentially treating it as a yield sign.

Motorcyclists get enough bad press from car drivers, let's not take it out on cyclists.

[HDGoose]

I can stop my bike on a dime

I am not coming to a full complete stop at sign nor light; I don't care if it's legal or not.

filtering and rolling stops on a bike are to non-bicyclists as lanesplitting is to non-motorcyclists..  if you havent mastered it, you cant understand the benefits or safety aspects, it just 'looks' dangerous; so the knee-jerk reaction is to say ban it.

I also refuse to wear a cycle helmet unless i'm mountainbiking..but  that's a whole 'nother ball of wax.

Then don't force me to brake to avoid you because you blow a stop sign. I've had lots of arguments about this over the years.

[Green1000S]

My house is on a 4 way stop sign, below a good size hill. Every Saturday an Sunday multiple groups of 5-30 bicyclists fly through the stop sign at 30-40mph.
Is your life really that invaluable and with total disregard to traffic signs?
And there has been several bad accidents. No deaths..  Yet.
If I do that with the moped or Guzzi, I'm ticketed.

Share the road, share the laws and stay safe (and most importantly, stay alive)

[sdcr]

Not a bicycle accident, but last Saturday a teen skateboarder failed to stop, and paid the ultimate price...


http://www.theintell.com/news/local/lenape-middle-school-quarterback-dies/image_b249a8fc-a289-11e5-89f3-87e4e73710b2.html


John

1983 Le Mans III

[boatdetective]

I'm fine with it. Let a few of the arrogant, "share the road" aggressive bicyclists get plastered and then common sense may just reign over posted law.  Where I live so close to the People's Republic of Cambridge, there are plenty of pushy bicyclists. Invariably, they are not people just out for a ride, but the day glo dbags in racing gear or urban hipsters. While I'm certain that Darwin will sort this out, it would be nice if someone spoke up and mentioned that "share the road" doesn't mean "cut in front of traffic to take a left turn".

[mjptexas]

I thought bicyclists simply ignored traffic laws 

They sure do in Austin,TX.  And God forbid you ever hit one in this town, your fault, their fault, doesn't matter.

[Cool Runnings]

Same rights as a pedestrian.

[lucian]

Isn't SF the capitol of    Don't stop .

[George_S]

I'm fine with it. Let a few of the arrogant, "share the road" aggressive bicyclists get plastered and then common sense may just reign over posted law.  Where I live so close to the People's Republic of Cambridge, there are plenty of pushy bicyclists. Invariably, they are not people just out for a ride, but the day glo dbags in racing gear or urban hipsters. While I'm certain that Darwin will sort this out, it would be nice if someone spoke up and mentioned that "share the road" doesn't mean "cut in front of traffic to take a left turn".

+1!
I have the same DB problem bikers around here too.
45MPH roads, only one 10 Ft wide lane in each direction, and no shoulders, they still insist on riding two abreast, taking up half the lane. If it comes down to me hitting either another SUV head on with our closing speed at 90MPH, or running over them, guess which I'm going to choose to ensure my own survival?

[Cool Runnings]

Look out for the other guy!

[lucian]

I just tell them they might be right , but they'll be dead right.

[Cool Runnings]

Those cleated shoes do wonders to cager doors at stop lights. 

[blackcat]

I have hit 2 bicyclists in my truck in two different incidents. Both were at fault and both times I went to the local precinct to report the accident. Obviously nothing serious, and fortunately neither were killed but they were lucky. One guy was going the wrong way on a one way street and the other was just flying through an intersection on a main highway.

NYC seems to ticket bicyclists for not stopping at traffic lights and the fines are not cheap @$278 bucks; I have no sympathy for their bad choice.

[Sasquatch Jim]

  Maybe SF just has too many bicyclists and they need to thin the herd.

[Rough Edge racing]

 Jeez, do motorcycles have to stop at stop signs?  I live in a rural area with 45-55 MPH speed limits on the back roads. Lots of a bicycle groups rolling along through stop signs.. The riders do check for traffic of course. I don't usually obey traffic laws on my bicycle...easy to do when there's very little traffic. And what  car and truck traffic there is around here appears to give pedal pushers plenty of room...

[lucydad]

Hmm, that is interesting.  We will see what the Mayor of San Francisco does.

The closest I have come to a major accident on my motorcycle involved a pack of bicycles.  They were practicing for the MS 150.  Location was Fulshear, TX where there is a major intersection in town, a bendy-Y type, with a light.  Pack blew thru a red light.  I had the left turn green arrow.  Problem was: I assumed they would stop and obey the traffic laws. 

Assume.

Makes an "ass" out of "U" and "me".  Sounds like lawyer fodder for me.  Houston bicycle deaths have been rising, particularly in the inner city as more people use them for recreation and commuting.  Many, if not most of the deaths are at intersections.  Driver hostility towards bicycles has risen dramatically.

I only ride my bicycle on low traffic roads, and usually to designated off main road bicycle paths.  Mostly I stop at stop signs and lights (always) as frankly I do not want to die on my Cannondale.

I will say this:  a bicycle helmet is mandatory all the time.  Brain buckets are common sense on any two wheeled device.

And, I can also stop my bicycle on a dime, IF the traction is there.

[JeffOlson]

I have mentioned this before: I feel much safer riding a motorcycle or scooter than I do riding a bicycle. On two wheels with a motor, I can keep up with traffic. No one passes me within my lane. On two wheels without a motor, cars are constantly passing me at high speed within inches of my left shoulder. (I have actually been hit by a car in this scenario, fortunately at a low speed.)

Regarding completely stopping for stop signs while on a bicycle, I think it is unnecessary--as long as the bicyclist slows significantly, looks, and proceeds with caution. The same applies to runners and walkers: slow, look, and proceed with caution.

[canuguzzi]

The claim is that enforcing stop sign laws for bicyclists is a low priority and takes up valuable resources.

Low priority because you know, cyclists don't blow through stop signs.
http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/08/15/107079/Chris-Bucchere-Sutchi-Hui-bicyclist-pedestrian

What this bicyclist did, not even slowing down for stop sight or red lights is common, not an infrequent thing.

Using cleated shoes to crunch car doors probably isn't the smartest thing in the world as some implied.

[not-fishing]

Stop signs and stop lights for that matter are a traffic control creation for cars and trucks - not bicycles, pedestrians or horses.

The first recorded stop sign was installed in Detroit Michigan in 1915.

http://signalfan.freeservers.com/road%20signs/stopsign.htm

Police Officer William L. Potts of Detroit, Michigan, decided to do something about the problem caused by the ever increasing number of automobiles on the streets. What he had in mind was figuring out a way to adapt railroad signals for street use. Potts used red, amber, and green railroad lights and about thirty-seven dollars worth of wire and electrical controls to make the world�s first 4-way three color traffic light. It was installed in 1920 on the corner of Woodward and Michigan Avenues in Detroit. Within a year, Detroit had installed a total of fifteen of the new automatic lights.

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/trafficlight.htm

not-beating-a-dead-horse

[Mark West]

Actually the proposal is not to make it legal but rather make it a low priority for police to ticket people. In my opinion, it's a good thing since it allows police to stop someone if they see them doing something stupid and ignore the responsible bicyclists who are not causing any problems.