A Colorado Senate Committee voted down an “Idaho Stop” bill. Under the proposed law, cyclists would have been permitted to treat stop signs as yield, legalizing a common behavior:
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.
Any idea why this was voted down?
@Steve, try reading the linked article for ideas why it was voted down … it’s the usual stuff.
I’ll quote the nut for you “[The bill] 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.”