A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
It happens all too frequently. I’m in my Ford, stopped at a stop sign, signaling a right turn, when a fool on a bicycle passes on my right and blasts through the stop sign, hardly slowing. Sometimes that happens just as I start my turn.
This dangerous and disrespectful practice is legal in Idaho, hence its name, the Idaho Stop. Now, reports the New York Times, San Francisco, where hordes of bicyclists scoff at stop signs, may legalize rolling “stops” by bicyclists.
In Montana, reports the Missoulian, bikewalkmontana.org and the Missoula Institute for Sustainable Transportation want Idaho Stops legalized. So far our legislature has resisted the idea, but the bicyclists will be back in 2017 lobbying for the change.
It’s a bad idea. Stop signs are for everyone. And coming to a complete stop on a bicycle, which means brakes locked and a foot on the road, is not an onerous maneuver, not even for those of us north of 60. My mountain bicycle has good brakes and low gears. I have absolutely no difficulty coming to a complete stop, then getting started again, block after block after block.
So why the love of the Idaho Stop? For some, it avoids the annoyance of disengaging from toe clips. I can understand that. What I can’t understand is why some bicyclists use toe clips. They’re dangerous. And they’re not needed to keep one’s feet on the pedals. Toe clip complainers get no sympathy from me.
For others, coming to a complete stop seems to be at odds with a belief that riding a bicycle should free a person from obnoxious traffic laws such as required stops. They’re gripped by a form of libertarianism that leads to defiance and to contempt for, and hostility toward, motorists. Reports the Times:
There is no shortage of clashes among those who travel by foot, on two wheels and on four. In August, a driver was surrounded by cyclists from Critical Mass, a guerrilla bike group that holds monthly rides that often snarl traffic; when the driver tried to escape, one of the cyclists used a bike lock to smash the car’s windows and hood. The episode was caught on video.
Scofflaw bicyclists generate hostility among motorists, who then behave with hostility toward all bicyclists, including law abiding bicyclists such as myself. We don’t need Idaho Stops in Montana. Instead, we need to throw the Idaho Stoppers in jail.