“It’s safer.”

“Cyclists are doing it anyway.”

“It really benefits motorists.”

“It’s the common sense, conservative thing to do.”

After a Senate committee heard two hours of arguments much like those above, Colorado law will continue to require cyclists to obey red lights and stop signs. And, much to the annoyance of many motorists, a lot of cyclists will continue to ignore them.

A bill allowing cyclists to roll through intersections at a “reasonable speed” — as long as they yield to cars and pedestrians — died along party lines in the transportation committee Tuesday. Majority Republicans worried that it would only create more clashes between motorists and cyclists if they exempted cyclists from traffic laws that drivers have to follow.

About a dozen cyclists spoke at the hearing, most of them in favor of Senate Bill 93, saying it’s simply safer — and less of a hassle for motorists — for them to roll through an intersection rather than stopping if they can do so safely.

“The longer it takes us to merge into traffic or cross an intersection, the greater the risk of a collision,” said Richard Handler, a cyclist with Team Evergreen Cycling.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood, is commonly known as the “Idaho stop,” and backers credit it with reducing cycling-related injuries by 14.5 percent in that state the year after it was implemented, according to a 2010 study by Jason Meggs, a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health.

But not all cyclists are in favor of the law. Some said they were worried the law would make intersections less safe and more confusing, with cyclists and motorists held to different standards.

Dave Hall, a spokesman for the Colorado State Patrol, said he believed many cyclists can safely perform a rolling yield at stop signs or red lights — but that didn’t mean it should be legal.

“We don’t make our traffic laws in this state or in most states (based on) what the majority of people can cognitively accomplish, particularly in life and death matters,” Hall said.

Sen. Vicki Marble, R-Fort Collins, recalled being flipped off by a cyclist who rolled through an intersection when she had the right of way in her Hummer.

“Had I not slowed down he could have T-boned me, and I would’ve felt absolutely devastated,” she said.

Former Sen. Greg Brophy, a Republican and cyclist who spoke in favor of the bill, countered that under a rolling stop law, that cyclist’s behavior would have still been illegal.

“I would just ask that the state law represent (the behavior of) normal, rational people,” Brophy said. “What the reasonable person would do in that case is not to flip off the person in the Hummer, but instead yield to the Hummer.”