Quick! Give WABA another multi-million dollar DC government contract to teach kids how to ride a bike (and subsidize WABA's lobbying at the same time). |
I drive and this has never happened to me. We can exchange anecdotes all day or just look at the objective evidence which shows that drivers break road rules more frequently and more flagrantly than cyclists. |
Here you are again using terms you refuse to understand. Read the law around the Idaho Stop in DC and come back with some actual information, rather than prejudiced nonsense. |
So do most bike lane supporters. |
The facts of the Idaho Stop law are that cyclists are permitted to treat stop signs as yield signs and pedal through intersections controlled by stop signs without stopping - IF - there are no other vehicles, cyclists or pedestrians in the intersection at the time. That’s the facts. The reality is no cyclist anywhere, ever, stops for a stop sign, regardless of circumstances. I know this because I’m also a cyclist on occasion. But I have such disdain for most other cyclists that I sometimes panic-stop at stop signs when someone is following me closely, just to see if I can make them crash into me. A few have. Mostly get mad, ask me why I slammed on my brakes?… I tell them “there was a car at the other side of the intersection so you can’t do an Idaho Stop”. Mostly they’re all indignant. It hilarious. |
Here's the law. Given this, and the sheer number of cars and other people on the road, Idaho Stops should be relatively rare. Code of the District of Columbia § 50–2201.04d. Riders' safe crossing at intersections. (a) A rider approaching a stop sign may go straight through the intersection or make a turn without stopping; provided, that the rider: (1) Is travelling at an appropriate speed to reasonably assess and avoid hazards; (2) Determines there is no immediate hazard; and (3) Yields the right-of-way to pedestrians and to other traffic lawfully using the intersection. |
There's no objective evidence that says that. MPD hasn't enforced traffic laws in years and has never enforced them against bicyclists. Instead of spening money on any of this crap we should just restart traffic enforcement against everyone. |
I'll take dumb hyperbole for $100. The police tell us that there's fewer than 10 traffic deaths in DC per year caused by speeding drivers. There's typically a half million cars in DC on any given day, so that would suggest that nearly all drivers are actually driving pretty safely. |
Unless you have proof of the bolded phrase, it would be illegal, and the public filings for WABA dispel this lie, so please stop repeating it. |
because pedestrians sit waiting at intersections until there aren't any cars, to cross |
And how many are caused by speeding bikers? And how many injuries and ER visits are caused by speeding drivers compared to speeding bikers? |
a few years back, some guy posted a video of every car coming to the stop sign at the intersection of Porter and Williamsburg Lane in Cleveland Park over 15 or 20 minutes in the middle of the day. Only two or three cars actually stopped while most of the rest did what can best be described as a California roll. |
It has only gotten worse, despite the claims of the pro-driving crew here. |
Bicyclists either don’t understand how Idaho stops work or they dont care |
Most of the time I see drivers blow through the stop sign, it's true, there's no one else at the intersection — so the chances of a traffic death happening are miniscule. And I don't know how many of them are speeding, which is actually the stat you're mentioning (not running a stop sign), because I don't have a radar gun. Maybe you think cars should also be able to do the Idaho stop at stop signs? That's fine, I guess, as long as they can do it safely. |