Utah House approves cycling law allowing limited 'stop-as-yield' move for adult cyclists

The Utah House on Feb. 25 narrowly approved House Bill 155, changing state cycling rules to allow adults to treat certain stop signs as yield signs under specified conditions. The measure passed 39–33 and will be transmitted to the Senate.

Representative Moss, the sponsor, said the bill would allow an adult cyclist approaching a stop sign to slow, look, and continue through an intersection if no vehicle or pedestrian is in sight, citing Idaho’s 29-year experience with a similar law and estimating about 13,000 commuter cyclists in Utah. “This is a common sense application,” Moss said; “it simply says that a person operating a bicycle approaching a stop sign shall stop before entering the intersection, but it provides an exception that if there is no vehicle in sight or no pedestrian, they can continue through the intersection after slowing down.”

Opponents raised safety and liability concerns. Representative Greenwood cited crash data, saying 2,126 bicycle crashes occurred in Utah from February 2006 to February 2008 and that 26 percent occurred at intersections, warning the number could rise and cause fatalities. Representative Perry and others questioned insurance coverage and who would pay when a bicyclist causes a crash; Representative Vazquezki explained that auto insurance in Utah covers pedestrian accidents, including bicycles, and described no-fault aspects of some coverages.

Supporters, including Representatives Baskovsky and Nielsen, said the bill requires cyclists to yield to vehicles and to determine that the movement can be made safely, and argued the change would encourage lawful, practical cycling while reducing minor inefficiencies. After extended debate on definitions (such as “reasonable speed”) and proposed extensions to other vehicle classes, the House approved HB155 39–33 and referred it to the Senate for consideration.