By Charles Pekow – It appears that stop-as-yield laws may not lead to an increase in bike crashes. A study from the University of California looked at how these laws—allowing cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs—are performing in the five states that have implemented them: Idaho, Arkansas, Oregon, Washington, and Delaware.
The researchers compared crash rates in these states with those of neighboring states to determine whether California should consider a similar law.
“The results did not indicate a significant change in cyclist crashes among the states with stop-as-yield laws,” the study concluded.
However, the researchers noted that the study doesn’t fully settle the issue. More research is needed to explore factors such as weather, terrain, cyclist behavior, urban versus rural settings, and the severity of crashes, as this study focused primarily on crash numbers.
For more information, check out Evaluate the Safety Effects of Adopting a Stop-as-Yield Law for Cyclists in California at https://escholarship.org/uc/item/64h2s9cj.
