When stop means go, and go means stop.
Life is confusing. There is no black and white. We say we want one thing, and then we ask for another, and then everyone gets frustrated because no one can figure anything, or each other out.
That’s why stop signs and bicycles have become the most frustrating combination for pretty much everyone alive these days; the signs may be red, but it truly is a gray area.
Ever since the dawn of time, cyclists have been running stop signs, but recently, the governor of Colorado passed a law that makes it legal.
Making it legal was an attempt at reducing racially targeted ticketing, which is great, but in the meantime, it’s left a lot of us decently confused as to what and how cyclists should act around stop signs.
The new law does not excuse cyclists to blast through a stop sign without looking, though I see this happen pretty much every day. It makes my heart sink for our cycling community – no wonder vehicle drivers hate us. The law, and your life, still requires a cyclist to yield to oncoming traffic that has the right-of-way. Don’t know what that means? Retrace your steps back to your driver’s test when you were 16 or 18 or however old you were when you learned what right-of-way means and that jumping in front of a moving vehicle will kill you. Never took a driver’s test or forgot? Google it.
Another gray area that is confusing and wishy-washy, and that has become such a source of saltiness for me and pretty much every other bicycle commuter I know: if you’re the driver of a vehicle, and you DO have the right of way, do not stop in the middle of traffic to let a cyclist cross the street.
I struggle with how to describe the scenario, but the more I chat with folks, the more I understand that we all understand what I mean by this.
If you are driving a vehicle and you do not have a stop sign, do not stop in the middle of the road, or an intersection to let a cyclist through who does have a stop sign, and does not have the right-of-way. Clear mud?
Us cyclists know you’re trying to be nice – and thank you for trying to be nice — but stopping your car when other cars are not prepared to stop, or not clued into what’s happening, is so dangerous for everyone. Please just stick to the traffic laws. Don’t know what they are? Google them. Cyclists should be doing the same, and in this way we can all maybe make things a little less confusing, a little more black and white, and maybe then we can all get along a little better.