Oregon’s new bike bill that allows cyclists to yield at stop signs has spurred some changes on a popular bike route in Eugene.
To travel east and west in Eugene, cyclists have limited safe options. One is 15th Avenue, where traffic circles at some intersections slow down motor vehicles. The city recently changed stop signs to yield signs at those intersections.
Eugene Traffic Operations Engineer Andy Kading said he bike- commutes. He described a recent close-call when he thought no cars were coming through an intersection.
“When I got to the critical decision making point, boom, a car came into the limited sightline that I had and I had to brake hard.” Kading said. “It was nowhere near a crash or anything like that but it was just a good reminder that you know operationally, we can always look for improvements and this just happened to be one.”
Kading said the yield signs should help prevent similar situations when there’s confusion about who has the right of way. It also makes the traffic circles more consistent with others in Eugene.
Copyright 2020 KLCC.