kr32

Do you stop for them?
I was raeding this https://www.slate.com/id/2232555/ morning and started thinking.
I have run stop signs a ton of times and will continue to do so(after looking and seeing if it is safe) Now red lights are another story for me. I usually stop for them and wait but there have been times, like early in the morning and there were zero cars anywhere to be seen, when I have rolled through.
I do not ride in a city enviorment so oneway roads are far and few between but I have not gone the wrong way ever and think I wioud never do it.
What about you guys?

Road Fan

I don't run stop signs in traffic. I do always slow down and look both ways if I do a rolling stop, and I obey traffic signals maybe 95%.

leob1

If your rolling, it's not a stop.
But if I can see no cars either way, I will go through a stop sign, I wait for lights 95% of the time, usually I need the rest.

Wanderer

I always stop, and wait for greens. I look at them as good practice to improve my trackstanding skills.

Besides, I want to be a good example for any little kids who see me.

p.s. there aren't many stop lights in my normal routes. More stop signs than anything.

Plutonix

There are a handful of states that allow bikes to treat stop lights - or ones in certain areas - as yield signs. In some cases this is to recognize that many traffic detectors do not detect a bike, in others it is to facilitate commuters laden with laptops etc and accelerate from a full stop much more slowly.

OTOH, a local ride club was issued 17 tickets recently after being warned about running stops.

I treat several specific Stops in low traffic areas that I ride daily and have good visibility both ways as a yield (if it is clear) but make sure to look each way about 3 times as I do.

Louis

I have perfected a kind of pseudo trackstand. It looks like a full stop but isn't quite, it looks like a one second trackstand but isn't quite that either.

I always stop for red lights.

guybierhaus

Ride in very rural area. Don't really have to slow down to look at SS, I'm already riding slow, but yes if roads are clear I ride thru. I do cross a busy hyway twice. At first crossing I often ride in a tite circle till road is clear, then cross. At second crossing I have a better view, may ride thru, or may actually stop. It's been awhile since I rode the route, but on one route I do have a TL at a 4 lane hyway crossing. Don't recall ever doing anything but stopping. A car is usually there within seconds to trip the light.

BluesDawg

I sometimes - no, make that often - do a rolling near stop at stop signs after making sure that nothing is coming. This is especially true with 4-way stops.

I always stop at red lights. I have occasionally run a red light when after stopping and waiting for a while I realized that the sensor would not recognize my bike and there was no car coming to trigger it.

byte_speed

Pretty much the same here and traffic means any cars around at all.

But there are a number of factors I consider in the above decision:

• Is it safe (can I see everything)?
• Are there autos in any direction that may take offense at me running a sign/light?
• Will I hold up traffic if I wait (several cars in front at turn lane where I may not make the yellow due to clipping up)?
• Will I hold up cars behind me when the light changes and the cars want to accelerate rapidly after I clear the intersection (room to pass)?
• Will the light ever change for me (me in turn lane and all cars going straight)?
• If in doubt, stop (and occasionally walk bike)

A note on a couple of the items in the list: I've had several occasions where motorists went ballistic when I couldn't get out of their way due to clipping up or general lack of acceleration. I sometimes turn right followed by a U-turn to go left if heavy traffic make this easier. On a long green, I may move to the side and wait for the autos to pass before I even move.

Metric Man

I only stop at Stop signs if there is traffic. Which usually results in me getting ticked off at some idiot driver who is already stopped and waits for me to roll another 50' and come to a complete stop, and unclip, so they can wave at me to go. Fortunately there are very few stop signs on my daily ride...and only one signal which I stop at unless it's very early and no traffic then I will roll through slowly.

I have one stop sign on a downhill section that I run at 30+mph everyday...I can see the approaching traffic because of the height advantage of the hill and there is never anyone there. Yet

NOS88

My son was hit doing a rolling stop through a stop sign. He swears there was no traffic coming. The pickup truck that hit him and sent him flying across the road onto someone's lawn was proof that traffic isn't always easy to see coming. This event scared the daylights out of us. I stop; often a track stand stop, but I stop.

maddmaxx 

Bikers, like drivers who don't stop at stop signs or lights develop a "muscle memory" for not stopping. One day you get to the stop sign, look, and because nothing has been coming the 40 times before, the brain sees nothing.

How many times do drivers do it to you. They pull out and suddenly their eyes go wide........where did you come from.

Stopping gives you the extra seconds for your brain to work.

Elsewise you end up like Nos88's son..............he really didn't see it coming.

edit: besides, if you want to be treated like every other vehicle on the road, you have to behave like them.

Monoborracho

I have a close friend who is a state trooper, and he put it to me some years back like this:

"You guys on bikes want to be treated like vehicles, and under the law you basically are. But you blow through stop signs, cut the corners on streets, and sometimes run red lights if no one is there. Then you ride in packs inches away from one another at what are basically low highway speeds.

It's hard to be sympathetic when you have an accident that is your fault, or when you pile into each other because you were tailgating (think paceline). If you wouldn't do it in a car, you shouldn't do it on a bike."

Monoborracho

Sometimes you have to do this. It has been interesting, since we started riding a tandem, to realize that while some lights won't change for me on my single bike, the tandem has enough metal mass (usually) activate the sensor.

chipcom 

I stop for lights, slow to a faux trackstand long enough to ensure I have the right of way at stop signs.

dynodonn 

I've noticed that tire profile height makes a difference too, after observing how much less effort is needed to trip the sensor with my bikes that have low tire profiles.

FarHorizon

What's the philosophical purpose of stop signs & red lights? To safely control the flow of traffic. If there's no traffic at all, I feel justified in going through without stopping.

DnvrFox

+1

Especially right in the neighborhood around me (very low traffic flow).

Almost all of our red lights are controlled by TV cameras sensing your presence. They work pretty well except for one.

WCoastPeddler

This is what I do as well.

I think there's a bit of confusion with some people at the term "blowing through a stop sign" -- to me, this means that there is absolutely no regard for the stop sign nor does the cyclist slow down. With this in mind, I don't "blow though" stop signs -- I've no suicidal tendencies.

Road Fan

TV camera sensors are a little odd, unless it's a really recent installation.

Magnetic loops are the most common vehicle sensors. Radar is another possibility. More $$ for teh sensor, less $$ for the civil construction.

maddmaxx 

So do cars....................feel the entitlement that is. No offense, but this is my pet peave.....that the law clearly "doesn't apply to me because..................". Eventually, everyone feels this way.

PaulH

I always stop, but not from any ethical or philosophical basis. I stop because it is a deeply ingrained habit built up over a lifetime. For example, right turn on red has been legal since the Nixon administration, but I still have to force myself to do it. I do have a logical rationale -- stopping allows me to scan for and resolve potential traffic conflicts more effectively -- but it's really habit.

How do you people manage to train yourselves to run red lights, and do you do it only on bikes? Is there something about cycling that makes it more attractive? I'm not criticizing red light runners here, I'm just trying to understand what seems to me as alien behavior.

Paul

Metric Man

I'm from California...nuff said.

Monoborracho

Do you do the same in your car?

DnvrFox

TV sensors are quite common around here. This is a relatively new area, but they also are retrofitting older types of sensors.