{"id":670,"date":"2010-11-15T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-15T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wabikes.org\/2010\/11\/15\/stop-signs-the-kudzu-of-american-bike-paths\/"},"modified":"2010-11-15T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-15T16:00:00","slug":"stop-signs-the-kudzu-of-american-bike-paths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wabikes.org\/index.php\/2010\/11\/15\/stop-signs-the-kudzu-of-american-bike-paths\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop signs: the kudzu of American bike paths"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Everyone who\u2019s been to the American South is familiar with kudzu\u2014a creeping plant that appears unbidden, soon covers everything in sight, and serves no useful ecological function<\/span><\/div>\n
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<\/span>Sort of like stop signs on America\u2019s multi-use bike-pedestrian paths.<\/span><\/div>\n
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<\/span>This is not a post about how it\u2019s\u00a0OK for cyclists to run stop signs. And it\u2019s certainly not a rant against stop signs generally. Properly located, they serve a very useful purpose. But in highway engineering as in other aspects of life, too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. And so it is with the stop sign.<\/span><\/div>\n

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In particular, I\u2019m talking about trail builders\u2019 penchant for placing stop signs that purport to require bicycle-pedestrian trail users to come to a halt at every crossing, large or small, significant or not. Certainly it\u2019s annoying. But more importantly, it creates ambiguities about who has the right of way, sows the seeds of confusion for motorists and trail users, and can be downright dangerous.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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<\/span>What\u2019s more, forcing cyclists to yield the right of way at every crossing violates even America\u2019s auto-centric road engineering standards, and goes against Washington\u2019s traffic laws.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Let\u2019s start with those laws.\u00a0 Be forewarned, however: Trying to reconcile the Washington statutes that govern right of way where bike-pedestrian trails cross streets may leave you chasing your legal tail. As the Washington Supreme Court once observed, with considerable understatement, \u201c\u2026our state\u2019s laws on bicycles and traffic safety do not present a picture of clarity\u2026\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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To begin with, the law considers bicycles to be \u201cvehicles\u201d (RCW<\/a> 46.04.670<\/a>), and bicyclists riding on a \u201croadway\u201d generally have the same rights and responsibilities as car drivers (RCW<\/a> 46.61.755<\/a>(1)). Among other things, any \u201cvehicle\u201d that comes to a stop sign must stop and yield to cross traffic (RCW<\/a> 46.61.190(2)<\/a>). <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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So doesn\u2019t that mean that cyclists facing stop signs on a bike-pedestrian path must stop and yield, just as they would as if they were riding on a regular street? Well, not really.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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That\u2019s because of at least two other legal provisions. First, the law requires cars approaching any crosswalk to yield to both<\/i> pedestrians and<\/i> bicyclists who are in the crosswalk (RCW<\/a> 46.61.235<\/a>). Second, there\u2019s a provision that exempts bicyclists from parts of the Vehicle Code \u201cwhich by their provisions can have no application [to bicycles].\u201d (RCW<\/a> 46.61.755(1<\/a>)).\u00a0 If cars have to stop and yield to cyclists in a crosswalk, then how can the stop-and-yield requirement apply to the cyclists as well? That would leave everybody and nobody with the right of way.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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You also have to go back and ask the question whether a bike-pedestrian path fits within the definition of a \u201croadway\u201d to begin with, triggering the requirement that cyclists act like car drivers. \u00a0In a 1990 case<\/a> involving a cyclist who was injured in a crosswalk along a King County cycle path, our State\u2019s Supreme Court said no. In that case, which was decided before the legislature changed the law to explicitly require cars to stop for cyclists in a crosswalk, the Court also observed that having different right-of-way rules for pedestrians and cyclists in a crosswalk made no sense.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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So what are all those bike-trail stop signs still doing there, anyway? And if a stop sign on a bike trail doesn\u2019t mean what it would if it were placed on a roadway, what\u2014if anything\u2014does it mean? My suspicion is: probably nothing. But no court has ever explicitly said that, although the 1990 Supreme Court case came pretty close.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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I doubt that many trail or road users are aware of these legal intricacies, or of the disconnect between the law and the signs. But they must feel the bewilderment in their bones, since the situation on the ground is generally one of mass confusion. Some cyclists, oblivious to their own safety, just blast through the stop signs. Some cyclists prepare to yield to cars, only to have the cars stop for them. Some drivers yield at bike-pedestrian trail crossings regardless of who has the stop sign; others just roar through even if a pedestrian\u2019s in the crosswalk. The end result is danger, since nobody\u2019s sure who\u2019s going to do what.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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Aside from the legal confusion these stops signs create, their overabundance of along bike-pedestrian trails violates accepted highway-engineering standards.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Traffic engineers know that if you put too many stop signs where they don\u2019t belong, people—both drivers\u00a0<\/span>and cyclists<\/span>–will start ignoring them.\u00a0 In fact, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials <\/span>says <\/a>that it\u2019s a \u201cmisconception\u201d to think that peppering bike trails with stop signs is a good way to reduce crashes. Thus, the national engineering standards that govern such things urge local officials to go easy on the stop signs on bike-pedestrian trails.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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The 2009 edition of the Uniform Manual of Traffic Control Devices (the engineers\u2019 bible for such things) says<\/a> that:\u00a0 \u201c<\/span>Speed should not be the sole factor used to determine priority, as it is sometimes appropriate to give priority to a high-volume shared-use path crossing a low-volume street, or to a regional shared-use path crossing a minor collector street.<\/span><\/i>\u201d\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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The draft American guidelines<\/a> for cycling facility design say that \u201c installing unwarranted or unrealistically restrictive controls on path approaches in an attempt to \u2018protect\u2019 path users can lead to disregard of controls and intersection operating patterns that are routinely different than indicated by the controls. This can increase an unfamiliar driver\u2019s risk of collision, and potentially lead to a loss of respect for the [traffic] control\u2026\u201d<\/i><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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So stop signs on bike-pedestrian paths are legally dodgy and can be dangerous. What should be done? Here are a few modest proposals:<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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–Remove the stop signs. \u00a0This one seems obvious.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
–Place signs at trail crossings explicitly telling motorists that they must yield to all trail users.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
–Amend the law to make it crystal clear that cyclists on bike trails are not subject to the same rules as they are on a roadway. \u00a0\u00a0<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
–Place \u201cspeed humps\u201d at trail crossings to make sure that cars slow down. In the Netherlands<\/a>, where cyclists almost always have the right of way, it\u2019s common to raise bike trails slightly at road crossings, so that the crosswalk itself is a speed hump. These \u201craised crosswalks\u201d are starting to appear in America as well. They should be a standard design at all trail crossings that don\u2019t have traffic signals.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
–Place traffic signals at trail crossings on busier roads.\u00a0 That way everybody gets a turn.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
–On the busiest crossings, consider bike overpasses, also a common feature on bike trails in the Netherlands, as this video<\/a> demonstrates. Grade separation is the ultimate safety accessory.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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Of course, some will object to what they see as giving cyclists the advantage over \u201creal\u201d transportation. \u00a0But the Vehicle Code already gives cyclists the right-of-way in crosswalks, and the signs should be consistent with the law. Moreover the present situation is confusing and dangerous, not only for cyclists but for pedestrians as well.\u00a0 And the bicycle will never become a viable transportation option for most Americans until those who design bike infrastructure start treating it like one.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Everyone who\u2019s been to the American South is familiar with kudzu\u2014a creeping plant that appears […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[49,13,44,15,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attitudes","category-bike-infrastructure-wa","category-bike-issues-advocacy","category-safety","category-transportation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStop signs: the kudzu of American bike paths - Washington Bikes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wabikes.org\/index.php\/2010\/11\/15\/stop-signs-the-kudzu-of-american-bike-paths\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stop signs: the kudzu of American bike paths - 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