Governor Kevin Stitt signed a bill into law Monday that adds safety measures for Oklahoma bicyclists.
House Bill 1770, authored by Rep. Mike Dobrinski, R-Okeene and Sen Darrell Weaver, R-Moore, will allow bicyclists to treat stop signs as yields and red lights as stop signs.
"Idaho, Delaware, Arkansas, Colorado, Oregon and Washington already have stop as yield laws on the books. In Idaho, the year after the law passed, they saw a 14.5 percent decrease in the injury of bicyclists. In Delaware, they saw a 23 percent drop in crashes involving bicycles at stop sign intersections 30 months after they passed their stop as yield law," Weaver said in April. "I'm confident this bill will make bike riding safer in Oklahoma."
The new law also allows cyclists to use their right hand to signal lawful turns and bars drivers of motorized vehicles from honking at a person on a bike.
Dobrinksi says the wording of the bill doesn’t change the liability or responsibility of the bicyclist while riding on roads, but rather that it allows them to move through traffic in a better manner.
The new law goes into effect on November 1st.
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