As early as next January, bike advocates are hoping to push through an Oregon version of an Idaho law that would allow bicyclists to yield instead of stopping at stop signs.

"We were hoping to do some advance media on this last December," said Karl Rohde, public affairs director for the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA), at a brown bag lunch meeting last week. "But we kept getting buried in the news cycle—whether it was snowstorms, scandals, or budget cuts. Nobody in the media cares about us right now."

Or perhaps that's what Rohde is hoping, because a lack of controversy around the idea would make its passage into law a lot easier.

The proposed law—which would allow cyclists to roll though stop signs, traffic and safety permitting—has been in effect in Idaho since 1982, said Ray Thomas, a bike and pedestrian lawyer. "There's just no increase in injuries or accidents for bicyclists under this law," he said.

"Cyclists are safer on back streets, and this law respects the reality that a cyclist can safely slow and check for traffic without putting a foot down," says House Representative Jules Kopel Bailey, who is sponsoring a bill on the law through the House of Representatives in Salem.

Bailey says he watched five cops on motorcycles pull over cyclists during a recent morning commute through Ladd's Addition in Southeast Portland, because they slowed to a near stop but did not put a foot down at the Ladd Circle.

"This law will allow all of you to continue behaving as you do already," said Rohde, at the meeting last Thursday, February 19.

The next step for the bill is to clear the house transportation committee in March.