A short urbanism video presenting original observations of how drivers treat stop signs, to argue that cyclists rolling through them under an Idaho stop is no different. It filmed intersections in Ottawa.
Why Hacker News points people here: Linked in threads on the Idaho and Colorado safety stop as evidence that drivers already roll stop signs.
“Oh the Urbanity! Recently had a great episode on this as well”HN comment, 2022
“Oh the Urbanity! Recently had a great episode on this as well”
Episode on cyclists rolling stop signs and motorist hypocrisy.
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I'll also add that the anger of motorists towards cyclists rolling through stop signs is completely irrational when you take into consideration that approximately 100% of motorists also run through almost all stop signs, so long as they aren't blocked by an other car. This twitter video exemplifies it pretty well link We just take for granted that cars will blast through stop signs at a pretty high speed (maybe 10 - 20 km/h?). But when we see a cyclist do it, for some reason there seems to be some sort of optical or logical illusion that makes it stick out to us more. If you look at the speed these cars are going at, a lot of them are probably actually going at around the full cruising speed of a casual cyclist. So, considering most cyclists would actually slow down somewhat to roll through a stop sign, they're probably actually going faster. Oh the Urbanity! Recently had a great episode on this as well this video
Cites itThatGeoGuyApr 2022
“initially called an Idaho stop”
Explains the Idaho stop and why drivers do it anyway.
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This is actually what this law is about. The difference between a cyclist at a stop sign and your average vehicle is visibility. Cyclists don't have blind spots the way cars & trucks do. So if you can reasonably see that there is no immediate traffic, you don't have to wait at an intersection and risk hoping that another driver at a 4 way stop will respect the stop sign. This whole law is being called the "Colorado Safety Stop" but was initially called an Idaho stop [1][2]. It resulted in a 23% reduction in bicycle crashes in intersections with STOP signs only [3]. Even if you think the results are not intuitive, they are certainly backed by data. Making this a law just means cyclists won't be harassed by law enforcement for doing what is statistically known to be safer. [1] link [2] this video [3] link
Cites itryukafalzJun 2023
“I saw a video a while back with some observations on this in Ottawa”
Observations of driver behavior at intersections in Ottawa.
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It's not as comprehensive as you're probably looking for, but I saw a video a while back with some observations on this in Ottawa: this video
