Proposed Bill Could Change The Way Oklahoma Cyclists Treat Stop Signs

Thursday, February 25th 2016, 7:51 pm

By: News On 6

A bill in the Oklahoma legislature would allow bicyclists to roll through stop signs if the intersection is clear.

It’s already cleared its first major hurdle in Committee.

It’s called the "Idaho Stop," a law first created in Idaho to allow cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs.

People who support the bill in Oklahoma say it will keep traffic moving; those against it don't think it's fair for cyclists to breeze through intersections.

Ross Snider and several of his friends at the Tulsa Bicycle Club meet twice a week and average more than 30-miles through county roads, city streets, and highway shoulders.

They also have to ride through tons of intersections with stop signs and traffic lights.

A new bill going through the Oklahoma House of Representatives would allow cyclists to yield at stop signs if nobody else is going through the intersection.

"You will have to look to make sure it's all clear," Snider said.

The bill also looks at traffic lights. In some situations, cyclists can never get the lights to change because the sensors don't recognize them waiting in the lane.

"If you have a carbon fiber or titanium bike, you can't trigger a lot of the stop lights. Some of them you just have to sit at because you can't trigger, so that would be a big help," said Snider.

Adam Vanderburg and his group, Oklahoma Bike Coalition, want the bill to pass.

"It requires no money, it's just a commonsense law. There's no appropriations, it's just a matter of changing the law," Vanderburg said.

Not everybody thinks cyclists should get a pass.

"Negative. No. Nobody else has the opportunity to run through them," said driver Tom Hardgrave. "Everybody has to take their own turn, regardless if you're on a bike or not."

The bill still needs to pass the House and Senate.