Bicyclist bill gets red light
BOISE – Bicycle safety isn’t as simple as just stopping at red lights, senators learned Tuesday in an hourlong hearing on a controversial bill.
“This law is really unnecessary – it’s kind of ridiculous,” cyclist Walter Ronk told the Senate Transportation Committee.
Cyclist Nick Wieber said Boise’s been named one of the top 10 cycling cities in Bicycling Magazine. “I’ve lived in Coeur d’Alene, too – it’s a great place to bike,” he told the senators. “This puts a little chink in that.”
At issue was SB 1058, a bill sponsored by Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, to require bicyclists to stop at red lights and stay stopped until the light turns green. The bill would make an exception for those who are turning right.
But bicyclists who filled the hearing room on Tuesday successfully persuaded lawmakers to reconsider.
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger, who presented the bill in Broadsword’s place because she was on a field trip with the Senate Commerce Committee, initially asked the panel to hold off on the bill and consider an amendment he drafted along with several bicyclists. That measure would address nonresponsive traffic lights – lights that don’t change because their magnetic sensors are tripped by cars, not bicycles. The amendment would have allowed bicyclists to proceed if the light doesn’t change for an “unreasonable” time.
But bicyclists who testified said there were other problems, too. For example, when a bicyclist stops at a red light and waits for it to turn green, more traffic tends to collect at the intersection. In congested urban areas, that traffic is then likely to turn right when the light turns green – right into the bicyclist.
“As a commuter, I ride in urban areas in heavy traffic,” Kip Burden, a Boise bicyclist and a project inspector for the state Transportation Department, told the committee. “When I start out with traffic, I’m at far more of a risk. The cars turning right have a tendency to turn into you. That’s a particularly dangerous spot for urban traffic.”
Burden said it’s safer to stop at the light, and proceed when there’s no traffic in or near the intersection – rather than waiting for it to build up again.
Burden, who wore black Spandex tights with a blue jersey and vest, got a laugh when he told the senators, “I want to apologize for appearing in Spandex, but I rode my bike.”
George Knight, a bicyclist and Boise State University professor, told the senators that traffic signals really are designed to manage vehicular traffic, not bicycle traffic. For example, they’re set up for the time vehicles take to get to the next intersection – which is much less than the time bicycles take.
The bill, he said, “would actually increase the frequency with which bicycles and motor vehicles are in intersections simultaneously.”
Bicyclist Amy Coyle said as a female cyclist, she is sometimes harassed as she commutes to work by bicycle. “I am most vulnerable when I am stopped at a red light,” she said. “Having the option to proceed would make me safer as a female cyclist.”
Boise Police Officer Clyde Lookhart, who said he writes more citations to bicyclists than anyone else on his force, said the current law requires bicyclists to stop at red lights, but not to remain stopped. They can then get into accidents with vehicles in the intersection, he said.
Sen. David Langhorst, D-Boise, said perhaps the Legislature needs to clarify that bicycles should stop at red lights and then yield to traffic. He asked Lookhart if that change would improve the law.
“Well, that would be better,” Lookhart replied.
The committee then voted unanimously to kill SB 1058, in anticipation of the various parties getting together and working out a new bill along the lines outlined at the hearing.
“I think that’s very possible,” Wolfinger said after the hearing. “That sounds like good language. Legislation is compromise, and I think that’s something we can work towards.”