Source: Commuting to work on a bicycle for years.
The real issue is that bikes aren't any safer treating stop signs as full stops. Visibility and maneuverability on a bike are so high that a complete stop is totally unnecessary for a bike approaching an empty intersection, so long as they at least yield to traffic.
Bikes are not cars, and should not be treated as such.
People who don't bike don't understand.
Imagine having to effectively park you car every single time a stop was legally required.
All moving vehicles should be operated safely, but obeying a stop sign, just because its a stop sign isnt always safe, or efficient.
@drRogers below me...
To anyone bitching about stop signs, they should be bitching about the lack of roundabouts.
There are myriad ways to design infra for non-stoppage cyclists.
How about we have entire zones where cars arent even allowed? If this were the case, then you'd have to design around mobility that didnt involve cars.
And I get dinged at because I let cars (who have missed MULTIPLE of "their turns") go. I don't get it.
Uh. Roundabouts cost orders of magnitude more than stop signs and eat up several times as much space as a standard intersection.
https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/intersection/innovative/roundabo...
>The average construction cost of roundabouts is estimated at approximately $250,000[2]. Roundabouts discussed in this report ranged in cost from $194,000 to just under $500,000, depending on their size (or "footprint" and right-of-way acquisitions that were needed.)
Let's see... 200k$ roundabout or sub 2k$ (probably sub 1k$) for 4 stop signs installed.
Cars do come to a complete stop every time they reach a stop sign or red light. Those that don't tend to get very expensive tickets. Pedestrians also stop at intersections, usually, and those that don't tend to get tickets.
It's just cyclists who seem to think that they're above the law. Guess what? They chose an inefficient form of locomotion, then they get to live with the consequences of that--including stopping at intersections like the rest of us.
I don't see why it should be any different for cyclists.
This argument, of course, does not apply to people going full-speed without yielding through a stop sign or traffic light
Stop signs become yield signs for cyclists. Red lights become stop signs.
Cool story time: only time I ever got in trouble on a bike was when I (on campus, even) blew through a stop sign at an intersection that was not even publicly accessible. State Police saw me and chased me down and pulled me over on my bike :-). She had a point. I didn't just mosey through that stop sign, I blew it at speed. Dumb kid.
The problem with coming to a complete stop on a bike is that for people getting to work it means a much more likely chance that you end up there sweaty; and most work places don't have a shower.
This is the weakest excuse I have heard for bad behaviour.
Doesn't that seem like an argument for cyclists stopping at stop signs?