this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2026
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About 15% of the US population lives in states with Idaho Stop laws, where bicyclists are allowed to treat stop signs as yield signs, and just under half of those also allow them to treat red lights as stop-then-yield signs. This has provided hard data indicating such a practice is measurably safer for cyclists, I believe at least partially because a disproportinate amount of collisions involving them happen in intersections and not needing to slow down for them means cyclists spend less time in those high danger zones. Given how much advice I was given as a driver boiled down to "drive safely, even if that means breaking the law" (especially given in regards to speed limits), I think it is perfectly justified for a biker to do the same, and act in the safer manner even if the laws says to do something else.
Traffic laws will not keep you safe. The legal system always has and always will always have this problem because there's a constant tussle between not throwing people who didn't do all that much in jail, and providing strong (as in enforceable) incentives to not do bad things.
The main point is that, in this case at least, it is measurably safer for cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs even when that isn't what the law says.