Originally Posted by
az_cyclist
+2
I always unclip and at least tap my foot down. As has been stated, we as cyclists need to observe the rules of the road if we ever hope to gain respect from motorists.
As for safety, stopping reduces the risk factor that you didnt see a car (or another cyclist on the cross street who didnt stop). I slowly rolled thru a stop sign on a quiet street on a club ride a few years ago. Just missed getting hit by another cyclist on the other street who didnt slow down at all.
Legally you need to stop, the wheels just need to stop, there is no requirement for waiting for any length of time. For a car to stop, look, proceed takes about 25 seconds, for a bicycle, the look often happens just before and during the stop, to stop, look proceed takes about .25 seconds, a lot of car drivers don't realise that it is possible for a bicycle to stop and proceed in a much shorter time. It may actually appear to a driver that a bicycle slowed down, but didn't stop.
One thing I think we need is a new sign.
1) First, the motor vehicle only stop. This would be a stop sign but would be red on the outside, but the word stop would be black with a yellow background. Motor vehicles would be required to stop, bicycles and pedestrians would be permitted to treat this as a yield. This would replace a lot of the political stop signs, but still allow the city or DOT to select which stop signs are applied which way. The existing white on red stop sign would still be a required stop for all users. The announcement of the new sign would have a PSA campaign so that everyone knows what it means.
I live in an area where every block there are stop signs, these vary in direction, so that you can't go more then 3 blocks without coming across a stop, this is because otherwise cars would go through there at 90km/h. As is anyone or anything walking along the street is in danger from cars that treat stop signs like the start lights at the drag strip.