07/13/2026
Worthy of Conversation for British Columbia. Common occurence already, including motorists, especially at stop signs.
Since 1982, cyclists in Idaho have been allowed to treat stop signs as yield signs and red lights as stop signs. The provision, now widely known as the Idaho Stop, has since been adopted by Delaware, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Arkansas, North Dakota, Colorado, and other US states. France and Belgium have introduced comparable measures at signed intersections.
The safety evidence, over more than four decades, is more settled than the debate around it suggests. A 2010 University of California, Berkeley review of Idaho crash data found no increase in injury collisions after the rule was introduced. Later studies from Delaware and Chicago found broadly similar patterns after their own adoption. Some data points to a modest reduction, associated with cyclists clearing intersections more quickly and reducing the window during which they share the junction with turning traffic.
The rule is not a licence to ignore signals. In every jurisdiction that has adopted it, cyclists must still yield to pedestrians and to vehicles with the right of way, and may only enter the intersection when it is clear. The change is procedural, not permissive.
The UK debate around cyclist behaviour at junctions has intensified since the Highway Code changes in 2022 and the Crime and Policing Act 2026. Whether the Idaho Stop is a workable UK policy is a separate question. The evidence base from the US and Europe, at least, is now long enough and specific enough to be worth reading before the argument starts again.
