Red Star directs us to TucsonVelo, where we learn that state Rep. Daniel Patterson’s bill to let bicyclists treat stop signs like yield signs has a stick in the spokes. Patterson says Tucson cyclists are getting hassled by the man:
Patterson said the law would help cyclists around Arizona, but would be particularly useful to Tucson cyclists.
“It is particularly an issue in Tucson because Tucson Police continues to issue hundreds and hundreds of citations for frivolous stop-sign violations,” Patterson said. “The situation with police stopping and ticketing cyclists for stop sign violations is worse in Tucson than anywhere in the state by far.”
Patterson said they will introduce the bill again next year, but need more help form the cycling community to get it pushed though.
“If cyclists want this there is going to have to be an organized campaign,” Patterson said. “People are going to have to back us up.”
This article appears in Mar 25-31, 2010.
Another option is the ‘civil disobediance’ route. Every cyclist that receives a ‘stop sign’ ticket from TPD should plead innocent and show up for court. Chances are very good you will still have to pay the fine. An extra 50 cases week will clog up the prosecutors calendars and send the message that this is not something that TPD should be wasting their time on.
Whats the big deal. Try stopping. If you want to use the roads follow the rules. Simple enough. Sorry to inconvenience everyone. Boo hoo. Maybe all the drivers of vehicles who get ticketed for yielding at a stop sign should tell the judge that they are just trying to save gas and it is just a hassle to stop. Why not motorcycles ? After all we don’t want them to have to stop either. My goodness. They would have to use their legs and everything. I say if you don’t like it try taking up jogging. Sabino is nice this time of the year.
@DaveQ
If you had the police lie in wait to ticket you, you’d be complaining too. This happened to me. An officer ticketed me one night on my way to work at 10pm at night in a residential neighborhood. He was there the next nite and ticketed me again.
Oh and Dave, I hope you never have to wait for an officer when your home is being invaded by hoodlums. Remember, he may be doing important work ticketing bicyclists at some stop sign.
Dave Q:
Nothing is gained by bicyclists stopping at most stop signs, because they are already traveling slower and have less restricted vision and hearing than automobile drivers. It is much easier to judge an intersection on a bike, and the time and energy penalty that results from repeated unnecessary stopping discourages cycling on the safer side streets where this law would be most applicable.
Some of the rules of the road make absolutely no sense for bicycles, and this is one of them. I hope this is remedied in the near future.
BAD IDEA. Yields are meant to refer to oncoming or crossway traffic not traffic going the same way. A scenario I see all the time: cars are stacked up at a stop sign, bike breezes right past them and goes directly to the stop sign. A bike flying past all these stopped cars cant fully digest all of which are going straight or turning right and not only that they don’t have to yield to same way traffic. Say the car stops and turns right at the same time the biker breezes through his yield sign. Those cars with reduced vision cannot easily see bike that is coming up to their right when they are concentrating on all the other throughways to see if they can turn! At least now a bike has to stop and that stopping may just give the driver enough time to see and avoid that collision and vice versa.
Actually DesertPrince what you are more likely to see under the ‘civil disobedience’ route is that the fine will go sky high to cover the cost of your hindrance of the court system.