Why don't bike riders obey the laws?!
If you ride bikes, you’ve probably heard it, maybe from your friends, co-workers or family. In approximately 100% of news articles about bikes posted online, the comment section will have someone asking it.
“Why do bike riders run through red lights and stop signs?”
This is a loaded question and it’s one that is not always asked in good faith. Many times, people use this well-worn critique to justify their lack of concern for a city having a terrible safety record for bike riders or for not having enough bicycling infrastructure. A lot of people just straight-up don’t like bikes and will justify their antipathy by labeling bike riders a bunch of selfish, scofflaw rule-breakers. When I suspect this is the motive when the question is posed to me, I’ll usually quip, “It’s ‘confirmation bias.’” When they ask what that is, I say, “It’s when you have an idea about something so you only notice behavior that support that idea.”
Tell them: there’s not any evidence or data that supports the theory that bike riders disobey traffic laws at a higher percentage than people who drive. What little data there is suggests that people who bike actually obey the law more often than those who drive, on average.
Here’s one study….but it’s based in Denmark, so the applicability to the US is questionable.
Here’s another study out of Florida, but that one, admittedly, has a very small data set.
The thing is…everyone breaks traffic rules. People walking don’t wait for the ‘walk’ sign at intersections. Drivers speed, tailgate, change lanes without signaling, roll through stop signs and red lights and worse. And yes, people on bikes sometimes go through stop signs and red lights. And when they do these things, the underlying motivation, believe it or not, is probably not selfishness or lack of concern for others. It might be illegal; but it’s not irrational.
Let me explain….. But first, please note that Bike Baton Rouge does NOT support the idea that cyclists do not have to follow traffic laws. What this post seeks to do is merely point out that people on bikes have different variables to consider and different challenges to deal with than people in cars. Those logistical challenges, more often than not, are why we run red lights and stop signs on occasion….
Today’s traffic lights are not simply on a timer, where they allow for x minutes of green light for one direction and x minutes for the other. No, the timing is based on complicated mathematical formulas that take into account automobile traffic volumes and adjust the timing of the lights accordingly. However, while this may help with traffic congestion (jury’s still out on that, by the way), it can often leave cyclists without enough time to cross a street safely. If a green light is three seconds long (yes, there are some lights in town that are green for literally three seconds), it’s not because the engineers thought that’s how much time a cyclist or pedestrian needs to cross the street safely; it’s because that’s how much time x number of cars needs to cross the intersection, based on those math formulas I mentioned above. Basically, those of us biking and walking are left out of the equation, so we’re faced with two options: 1. run the red light while there are no cars approaching on the crossing street or 2. risk waiting for the green light and having it turn red while we only made it 1/2 across. Sometimes the safest option is, ironically, to “break” the law and run the red. By the way, because in the United States, we allow right turns on red, waiting for a green light means you still might have to contend with cars turning right.
But don’t traffic lights recognize people walking and biking? No. Or rather…not well enough, not yet. Besides the traffic volume patterns I mentioned earlier, many traffic lights are also “interactive,” meaning they utilize censors to know when cars are approaching from which direction and the light patterns are adjusted automatically. It really is impressive technology. The problem? Those censors are very, very bad at detecting anything that’s not a 3,000 lb metal object. The cameras that are used to detect motion won’t recognize a single individual most of the time because a person is too small. The inductive loops in the ground (those weird geometric patterns you see on the ground at intersections) are bad at detecting bicycles as well and don’t detect a pedestrian at all. The result? Someone walking or biking can end up waiting at a traffic light forever. Now, given the option of waiting indefinitely or waiting until there are no cars coming from either direction on the crossing street and running the red light, what would one expect a person to do, realistically?
What about stop signs? Remember when I mentioned that there are factors involved in bicycle travel that motorists don’t have to deal with? Stop signs illustrate this perfectly. First, the safest time for a bike rider to go through a stop sign is when there aren’t any other cars around. Sometimes, this means going through the stop sign. By the way, this actually reduces delays for motorists.
Secondly, people on bikes need to preserve their momentum. In places where it is hot much of the year, like Baton Rouge, people biking keep cool by..well…biking. We make our own breeze by staying in motion. We also need to try and not exert too much energy; staying in motion helps with that as well. These are things people in cars do not have to worry about. It does not require physical exertion to move a car, only a slight press of the pedal. The heat is not a factor as well, as cars (unless they’re busted) have air conditioning.
Again, all this is not to say that bike riders shouldn’t obey the laws. They (we) should. But when we don’t, it’s sometimes a matter of safety and practicality, not disregard for the law or some idea about being entitled. This is important. Motives and intent matter. When people say “Why don’t bike riders obey the laws?!?” they probably don’t realize that bike riders are forced to navigate our way through a built environment that wasn’t designed for us all while being expected to obey laws that weren’t written for our safety or benefit. AND we have environmental factors - rain, heat, cold - to deal with, unlike drivers who are insulated from such factors. It’s hard to empathize with people if you don’t experience what they experience. It just is.
Lastly, opponents of better biking and walking conditions will justify their position by equating a cyclist breaking a traffic law with a motorist breaking the same law: “We all have to abide by the same rules of the road. Why should cyclists be allowed to break those rules?” First off…we’re not. We can be pulled over and cited just like any driver. Secondly, the destructive capability of an automobile is exponentially higher than that of someone on a bike. Frankly, it’s silly and totally disingenuous to compare the two. An automobile is several thousand pounds of metal and glass traveling at..well…as fast as the driver feels like. A person on a bike, even if we do something stupid, poses no threat to someone in a car. The inverse is obviously not true. There is no equal sharing of power in the car vs automobile dynamic. It’s like Spider Man’s uncle said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
We don’t feel it is a radical position to take to say that those who pose the greatest threat to the safety of those around them should exercise more caution and be held to a higher standard. A bike rider who blows through a stop sign with other cars around, as ill-advised as that is, poses no danger to anyone but him/herself. The same can not be said for a driver of an automobile. This is an important distinction to make when discussing road safety as a whole. The streets of Baton Rouge aren’t dangerous because of bike riders and people walking; they’re dangerous because of automobiles. So give the critics a little perspective when doling out judgement about bike riders who don’t come to a complete stop at a stop sign or advance through a red light.
Doug Moore
President, Bike Baton Rouge
P.S. Some states realize all of this and have adjusted their laws accordingly. In a few states, a bike rider may treat a stop sign as a yield sign and may treat a red light as a stop sign. We feel this will be the law in all 50 states one day.
