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this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2026
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My state updated their rules just three years ago. As a cyclist I have noticed a lot of drivers are unaware of this. It's possible there is recent legislation you are unaware of.
Here in Georgia bicycles are legally classified as vehicles (OCGA 40-6-291) and are required to obey all traffic signs and signals. They also require bicycles stopped at intersections to signal which way they are going, but they never seem to do that here.
To be fair, I assumed it was that way everywhere. Was Idaho the first state to legalize that? (Asking because I'm seeing it referenced as an 'Idaho stop' when searching. That aside, thank you for encouraging me to double check, normally I keep an eye out on changing traffic laws (like the GA slow poke law), but I'm sure I need to reread the book again sometime.
Here in the EU, bikes have a lot of places where they get special treatment, but blowing through red lights isn't one of them.
The above post states this occurred at a stop sign and not at a light. They used the words "in my neighborhood" implying that this is also a residential area where there would be less traffic.
Stop signs are no different. Traffic or no traffic, you heed the sign. Only losers blow past the stop sign without stopping. I also use my turn signal when no one is around. It's just what a good and safe driver does. Because muscle memory and good habits save lives in the end. At least they prevent accidents.
I think the main difference is, in places like the Netherlands especially in low-traffic neighborhoods, they would build yield signage rather than stop signs. America has a lot more of the latter, primarily because of the abundance of speed-demon cars.
Makes sense. 👍 I live in a bike city. We don't really have stop or yield signs for bike roads. Those roads kind of just merge smoothly with each other. They try to avoid intersections at all. But people manage just the same. People do what makes sense. It's less dangerous because the cars are on completely separate roads.
I think you missed the point about cyclists having different traffic laws. In fact the reason why the have it is for safety. A bike can't speed up quickly like a motor vehicle can so it's safer to maintain speed when possible.
Source? Moving is dangerous, not moving at a stop sign the only danger is from behind, so logically what you’re saying doesn’t even make sense. And i doubt there’s any study to support that.
They changed the law probably mainly so they wouldn’t have to waste time ticketing, it’s very rarely ever about safety.
Also, my old civic can’t accelerate fast, most bikes accelerate faster, so… that can’t be the reasoning. Lots of cars accelerate slowly and e-bikes accelerate faster than fast cars.
You can't move quickly at first and if a speeding car comes by you can't get out of the way. When I was 15 I experienced a driver blowing through the stop sign and hitting my back tire. It was super scary. If I hadn't stopped first I still would have been going fast and wouldn't of gotten hit by the car. That's why if I see that no one is coming I just go through.
I didn't miss it.
In the EU we have sensible rules where predictability trumps bullshit like that. Predictability is an extremely important factor for safety. Speeding up isn't an important factor lol, I've never heard such a silly rationale for allowing a certain vehicle to break the rules. What the actual fuck. 'Murica though, right? 😂
This is in Minnesota which is literally a mini Canada and the law was signed in by Tim Walz in 2023. Also bicycles are literally pedestrians and not vehicles.
Apologies, I don't know who Tim Walz is or why it's relevant. Also don't know what it means for the sake of argumentation that a state is a "mini Canada". 🤷♂️ No clue what the significance is there. 😅
🤨 That's weird. According to whom? Not Wikipedia anyway.
— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle
Bikes traveling on a road should adhere to the rules of that road, just like any other vehicle traveling on that road.
In Washington, cyclists treating stop signs as yield signs was added to the state code in 2020, despite the fact that bicycles are broadly defined as vehicles.
Yeah the "bicycles are vehicles" thing I've always found weird cause like, 5 year olds ride bikes, and it's very weird to call them a driver or a vehicular operator cause they are literally 5 years old. This is why bikes should be grouped separately from cars, since they are very different things.
5 year olds don't ride alone on a large road though. They are usually/should always be accompanied by an adult when riding on a road with other trafficants. Also their vehicles won't be as deadly as one necessarily operated by an older person, e.g. a car.
I feel like your view of "vehicle" is a bit black and white. 😬 There are nuances to this, of course.
I guess all this is exacerbated by the fact that America is a terrible bike country. It's a car country. So bikes are often forced to ride with cars, which is not good. But it makes sense that they should follow the same rules, because consistency is important.
It was said that "for some reason people don't know these special rules for bikes". Yeah, no kidding. Special rules are hard. Consistency is simple and predictable and the most important for safety IMO. 👍
Yet there they are, operating a vehicle (at least in my backwoods state).