Stop Signs continued

I heard about Idaho's code before a recent trip to San Francisco, where the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission is considering similar laws for California.  So I thought I'd test "the code" in action.  I'd ride around San Francisco operating as if stop signs were yield signs and red lights were stop signs.  If I could make it out without getting killed or pulled over, I figured, then Idaho's Code would be proven right.  Plus, to be honest, I'll pretty much take any opportunity I can concoct to break the law in the name of "research."

There are a lot of stop signs in San Francisco.  The trouble was finding stop signs that I could run according to Idaho's Code.  I set out from the Panhandle toward the Marina on my friend Brandon's bling Cyclops track bike that not only doesn't have brakes but isn't even drilled for brakes.  I'm used to riding a brakeless fixed gear bike, but the combination of hilly terrain and an unfamiliar handlebar setup had me hoping I wouldn't have to stop very often.  But the first stop sign I came to had a car approaching so I hopped the back wheel a few times and hauled the thing to a stop with my legs.  I waited my turn and continued to the next stop sign where the EXACT same thing happened.  I lucked out at a lot of stop signs, looked both ways and breezed through, but by the time I got to Japantown and its heavier traffic and stop lights, I was getting closer and closer to abandoning the whole experiment.  Every red light I came to there was traffic.  There was NEVER a chance to run one.  I quickly started renegotiating the particulars of Idaho's Code with myself.

"Well, I guess I don't really have to wait until there's no traffic.  I just have to yield the right of way." Or, "OK, well, yeah, there's a car coming to this stop sign.  But if I speed up and beat him through, I'm not putting anyone out."

I started darting across heavily trafficked streets whenever there was a gap.  I started edging my way into intersections to get cars to hesitate so I could cut ahead of them.  Mostly though, I just sat at red lights and waited - because I had to.  There were so many cars in San Francisco during the daytime that Idaho's Code was usually mute.  Either wait at a red light or die.