3 Reasons Why Andy Kerr’s “Safety Stop” Bike Bill Makes Sense

State Senator Andy Kerr of Lakewood has introduced a bill [PDF] that would legalize two things people on bikes often do to stay safe: Carefully roll through stop signs, and travel through red traffic signals, after stopping, when there’s no cross-traffic.

To many people who don’t bike, this bill may seem like a bad idea. Why shouldn’t drivers and bicyclists follow the same traffic laws? But there are good reasons the law should acknowledge the huge differences between enclosed, multi-ton cars and light, unencumbered bicycles. Below is a breakdown of why the “safety stop” law, as Kerr calls it, makes a lot of sense.

You can sign up to speak at the Senate Transportation Committee hearing at the Capitol (Tuesday, February 7, at 1:30 p.m., room 352), or write the committee members.

1. It’s safer, according to years of data.

Idaho was the first state to adopt a similar law more than 30 years ago. Multiple studies indicate that intersections are safer because of it. One found a nearly 15 percent drop in the rate of bike injuries after legislators adopted the “Idaho stop.”

One explanation for the effect is that when bike riders can get a head start at intersections, they become more visible to the drivers behind them. That helps avoid collisions in which the driver turns across the path of a cyclist in the car’s blind spot.

Bike riders also have a better vantage point than drivers to assess proceeding through stop signs and signals because “their unenclosed and exposed position in the road allows them to see, hear, smell, and sense vibrations and assess the safety of an intersection,” according to a 2014 white paper by the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Committee (MBAC).

Plus people on bikes are more stable while moving forward than when stationary. “A cyclist who comes to a complete stop, has a foot on their ground, and is trying to get going again, you’ll see them wobble and swerve a little bit and they’re probably looking down at their pedals,” said Dan Grunig, executive director of Bicycle Colorado. “Whereas when they’re rolling and continuing their momentum, their eyes are up, they’re looking around, they’re paying attention to what’s going on at intersections.”

Bicycle Colorado and BikeDenver both support Kerr’s bill.

2. The “safety stop” has a long track record.

Summit County, the towns of Dillon and Breckenridge, the City of Aspen, and the entire state of Idaho have all passed a version of Kerr’s proposal. The sky did not fall.

MBAC members interviewed officials from those jurisdictions and found that the “safety stop” rule just made common sense, because it “align[s] the city traffic code with actual behavior”: