As a response to an article over here about KPAM in Portland illegally parking there car and reporter to try to catch bikers running stops sings:
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It seems pretty clear that as far as stop signs go in Portland everyone knows that cars blow through stop signs all the time in this town. In fact, at my intersection, I can’t remember the last time anyone actually STOPPED (a full stop). Not only that, they turn around in the middle of the intersection. It is important to remember that the rules of the road were made for CARS. They were never really intended for bicycles. There may be some retrofits to accommodate bicyclists, but it would pointless to argue that rules of the road were made for bicyclists…. or even to argue that they were made for both. The laws on the books that apply to cars have been since when Portland was a stump/sin/shanghai city/town. Just in case anyone who has been living in Portland a long time missed the news, it is not that town anymore.
The bottom line here is some bicyclists don’t obey these laws BECAUSE THEY DON’T MAKE SENSE FOR BIKES. Also, as in my neighborhood, the city of portland decided that, regardless of the traffic patterns, that stop signs should be on alternating sides of the streets every two blocks. That’s a common pattern in Portland. But, people in cars blow the stop signs ALL THE TIME going NORTH/SOUTH because the stop signs don’t make sense. On my block there should only be stop signs on the EAST/WEST sides of the street, there should be no signs on NORTH/SOUTH. Traffic needs to flow freely in that direction… stop and go moving in that direction frustrates car and bike drivers, so they just don’t obey it. That’s the nature of good vs bad law.
Lastly, it is TRULY boring to argue that the reason car drivers really don’t like bicyclist un-necessarily obeying stop signs is because they have to sit in traffic while bicycles move through and get where they are going more quickly, especially at rush hours. If one would even try to argue it is for another reason that the same car drivers that never fully stop at stop signs are pissed at bicyclists… as they said in the 80’s… don’t even SMURF it! Car drivers need to deal with the fact that while their transportation is faster over long distances, bicycles can be faster in town, especially in traffic. Americans aren’t really all that smart a people, certainly not an intellectually flexible people (though VERY morally flexible). They don’t see how there could be two sets of laws to apply to two different things. But, that’s the simple answer here.
