That’s a headline with a lot of US state names in it. Those Midwest states that you can only find on a map if you’ve ever eaten a bloomin’ onion or own a horse ranch.
Utah and North Dakoto are the latest states to adopt the Idaho Stop law for cyclists. That means cyclists in those states can treat a stop sign as a yield/give way sign. The speeds and awareness of cycling make this quite safe, and having cyclists spend as little time at intersections/junctions as possible is crucial, as these are the places where almost all collisions occur.
It’s a law that’s quite common. It was floated in London, for example, and it currently exists in Idaho (duh), Arkansas Delaware, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington. California is also attempting to pass the law. Note that this may take a while though: Utah submitted the legislation five times in ten years before succeeding, and it took North Dakota a similar amount of time.
“This law should increase bicycle safety at stop-signed intersections as it has in places with similar laws like Delaware, where they saw a 23% decrease after enacting their stop as yield law in 2017.”
Crys Lee, Bike Utah executive director
Critics of the law argue that road rules should have all road users behaving predictably. Which is fair, although most laws that benefit cycling are usually met with resistance with bad-faith framing along these lines.
Our official editorial policy: road rules are designed to solve problems and dangers caused by cars and other motorized vehicles. We are not cars. Exempt us or we’ll exempt ourselves. And another thing– *mic cut off by our Ted Talk producer*