EDMONTON - It happens at Edmonton stop signs hundreds of times each summer day — cyclists slow down, look around and then zip right through the intersection.

Now some bicycle enthusiasts want the laws changed to make this widespread activity legal.

They’d like Alberta to introduce what’s often called the Idaho stop, named for the American state that began allowing bike riders to treat stop signs as yields in 1982.

“It makes sense to have something like the Idaho stop law when you have people that are only travelling at 20 kilometres an hour to begin with,” says Christopher Chan, executive director of the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters Society.

“You can see, you can hear, you don’t have any blind spots, you have very good ability to assess whether it’s safe to proceed without necessarily coming to a full stop.”

While Chan feels obliged to halt when required, it seems silly to him if there aren’t any motorists in his way.

“We don’t condone breaking the law or rolling through stop signs, because there’s an expectation that everyone on the road will stop,” he says.

“But what everyone is coming to realize across North America is there are differences between bikes and other vehicles on the road. Do we really want to spend police resources to crack down on behaviour that isn’t that unsafe?”

Jackie Pearce commuted regularly on her bicycle until an injury forced her to drive.

But she still rides, and if there aren’t any cars in sight she often runs the stop sign.

“It’s a little intense to brake, unclip (from the pedal), put your foot down, go through, clip … There’s no reason that a bicycle needs to come to an absolute halt if there’s no traffic,” she says.

“By the time you have come to a complete halt and then started up, it’s completely possible for five cars to show up (behind).”

No other state or province has followed the lead of Idaho, which also lets riders proceed through red lights after stopping if safe.

Alberta Transportation isn’t considering the idea, a spokesman says.

But it has piqued the interest of a couple of Edmonton politicians who admit to rolling through quiet intersections on their two-wheelers.

NDP MLA David Shepherd says he likes the concept, although he’s not advocating for it.

It’s among the issues he discussed with the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters in June.

“It’s still something that’s in the back of my mind and something I would consider exploring in the future.”

Coun. Scott McKeen, whose e-bike combines foot power with an electric motor, says it might encourage active transportation by allowing cyclists to maintain their momentum at traffic signals.

He wants to see an analysis of the law’s impact on safety before deciding whether it should be pursued in Alberta.

“It probably makes legal a common practice, but it will be open for criticism. I get a lot of complaints about bicyclist behaviour. I think that’s reflective of the tension right now between people who ride bikes and people who drive cars.”

A 2010 study by Jason Meggs from the University of California, Berkeley, determined Idaho bicycle injuries dropped 15 per cent the year after the law was introduced.