United States: New research shows that “rolling stop” laws are not risky, which allow bicyclists to slow down at stop signs but not stop.
Both the bike riders and drivers act safely in the intersection after they have been educated about how the law works, as evidenced by lab experiments using bicycle/motor vehicle simulators, as reported by HealthDay.
Impact of Education and Implementation
“The focus of previous research has been crash-data analysis and why riders are motivated to do a rolling stop even when it’s illegal in their state,” said lead researcher David Hurwitz, a transportation engineering professor with Oregon State University. “No one has looked at how well bicycle rolling-stop laws work, or what happens when you educate people about them.”
Moreover, at least eight states have implemented rolling stop laws for cyclists; the law splits the opinion and is also known as the “Idaho stop,” the researchers found.
Idaho was the first to pass such legislation in 1982, while Oregon passed it in 2019, and then Washington in 2020. The other five states are Arkansas, Delaware, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Utah.
The laws enable riders to maintain their speed, which decreases the likelihood of congestion at junctions and collision likelihood, as cyclists navigate the stop more efficiently, according to the researchers.
Benefits for Cyclists and Drivers
According to Hurwitz, 45% of bicycle and car collisions occur at intersections. As of 2022, 1105 bicyclists in the U. S lost their lives in motor vehicle crashes, a figure that is 13% higher than in the year 2021.
Study Methodology and Findings
In total, 60 participants were watched by the researchers while performing 16 ‘‘live-interaction’’ trials: each participant was driving bicycle and motor vehicle simulators in synchronous pairs. In all, for each of the modes, the bike and car approached and proceeded through a four-way stop intersection at the same time.
“Our networked simulator study design let us evaluate driver and rider behavior and their understanding of the law,” Hurwitz said in a university news release.
Past studies reveal that drivers exhibit high levels of hostile behavior toward cyclists if the rider appears to be ignorant of the law, according to Hurwitz.
When surveying the sample of bicyclists studied here, they learned about the rolling-stop law and preferred to come to a yield instead of a complete stop and, therefore, gained more time at intersections.
On the other hand, drivers narrated that the law averted to intersections or approached them at a slower speed.
“The findings suggest more outreach in regard to rolling-stop laws would be useful, and this research gives decision-makers information to support prospective legislative policies, set up educational programs, and design robust enforcement practices,” Hurwitz said.
Call for Increased Outreach and Education
This is the kind of education needed in the Pacific Northwest since Oregon and Washington boast some of the highest percentages of bike commuters in the country, according to Hurwitz, as reported by HealthDay.
Some of the findings outlined by the researchers included approximately 2% of Oregon workers and slightly over 1% of Washington workers bike to work. Portland has approximately 22,000 bicycle commuters, and Seattle has approximately 17,000.