From safety point of view, none of this is important for when everyone follows the rules. If everyone follows the rules people won’t get hurt both in the status quo and under a stop-as-yield regime.
I think the interesting questions lie in the grey area when not everyone follows the rules because that’s the reality.
What if it’s not a 4-way stop but a 2-way stop where the driver has the right of way? In the stop-is-a-stop status quo, their expectation is that they can drive at a constant speed on such a road, without having to prepare for emergency braking at every intersection. In a stop-as-yield regime the driver should have the expectation that cyclists might make a mistake and show up from some intersection. Assuming a constant rate of errors from cyclists, I’d expect to see a decrease in injuries in such cases. 🤷
Research shows that stop as yield doesn’t increase cycling incidents (see states in the US where it’s the law). The law only impacts those who follow it, and the harder/more annoying it is to follow the law (starting is hard on a bicycle), the less likely people are to follow it. For example, I see people jaywalking all the time in my area because crosswalks are rare, and jaywalking is rare downtown where there are plenty of crosswalks. So I think stop as yield has a very good chance of being a net positive.
At least I’m my area, drivers don’t seem to be aware of the stop as yield law despite it being the law here, so I don’t think we should expect much change in driving behavior.
Well I’m not arguing it’ll be worse. The opposite. I’m speculating on the mechanism. Personally I’d argue in favour of replacing the damn stop signs with yield. Then you leave less to the road users’interpretation. Every car driver passing through the yield sign will also be aware it’s a yield for the next time they drive on the orthogonal street.
Maybe. I just imagine that there are a lot of streets where a yield sign isn’t appropriate, such as an intersection where one direction is high speed and the other has poor visibility. Bicycles can stop much more quickly than cars, so perhaps it’s less safe to make more intersections into yields.
Then again, we could probably use a lot more yields than stop signs in general.
From safety point of view, none of this is important for when everyone follows the rules. If everyone follows the rules people won’t get hurt both in the status quo and under a stop-as-yield regime.
I think the interesting questions lie in the grey area when not everyone follows the rules because that’s the reality.
What if it’s not a 4-way stop but a 2-way stop where the driver has the right of way? In the stop-is-a-stop status quo, their expectation is that they can drive at a constant speed on such a road, without having to prepare for emergency braking at every intersection. In a stop-as-yield regime the driver should have the expectation that cyclists might make a mistake and show up from some intersection. Assuming a constant rate of errors from cyclists, I’d expect to see a decrease in injuries in such cases. 🤷
Maybe?
Research shows that stop as yield doesn’t increase cycling incidents (see states in the US where it’s the law). The law only impacts those who follow it, and the harder/more annoying it is to follow the law (starting is hard on a bicycle), the less likely people are to follow it. For example, I see people jaywalking all the time in my area because crosswalks are rare, and jaywalking is rare downtown where there are plenty of crosswalks. So I think stop as yield has a very good chance of being a net positive.
At least I’m my area, drivers don’t seem to be aware of the stop as yield law despite it being the law here, so I don’t think we should expect much change in driving behavior.
Well I’m not arguing it’ll be worse. The opposite. I’m speculating on the mechanism. Personally I’d argue in favour of replacing the damn stop signs with yield. Then you leave less to the road users’interpretation. Every car driver passing through the yield sign will also be aware it’s a yield for the next time they drive on the orthogonal street.
Maybe. I just imagine that there are a lot of streets where a yield sign isn’t appropriate, such as an intersection where one direction is high speed and the other has poor visibility. Bicycles can stop much more quickly than cars, so perhaps it’s less safe to make more intersections into yields.
Then again, we could probably use a lot more yields than stop signs in general.