Q: Now that bike riders are allowed to treat stop signs as yield signs, what should a driver at a four-way stop do if they’ve stopped and are ready to go and see a cyclist coming? Do you have to yield to the cyclist?
A: Before I address this question, I need to clarify something from last week’s article about tire chains and snow socks. If I left you wondering if maybe the law required you to carry chains in addition to snow socks, even if the chains don’t fit your car, the answer is a firm “no.” And that’s not just my interpretation of the law; it’s confirmed by Sgt. Wright with the Washington State Patrol. The State Patrol does not expect you to carry equipment that is of no use to you.
Now, to your question. Nearly all the discussion about the change to the stop-as-yield law has focused on what cyclists can do, but we haven’t spent much time talking about changes for drivers (if any). This law changes how cyclists ride, but will it change how you drive? Probably not. To explain why, we may need an in-depth analysis of what it means to yield. How many readers did that last sentence just turn away? “In-depth traffic law? I can hardly wait,” said nobody ever (well, I might have said it). Okay, maybe we’ll just go a reasonable depth into yielding.
To start, let’s take a look at instructions from the Washington Driver Guide on yielding at four-way stops. I’ll note that while the driver guide explains the law in simple language, it isn’t the actual law. However, it is the book we give to people to learn how to drive, so I consider it a trusted source. The guide states, “At a four-way stop the driver reaching the intersection first, goes first (after coming to a complete stop). If more than one vehicle arrives at the same time, the vehicle on the right goes first.” In the scenario described in the original question, the approaching cyclist should yield to the driver that has already reached the intersection.
One critical caveat: Regardless of who should yield, if it’s your turn to go through the intersection but someone else, whether a driver, cyclist, pedestrian or a clown on a unicycle pulls into the intersection first, let them go. People make mistakes, and insisting on taking your turn because someone else failed to yield has no good outcomes. The law states that we’re to yield to the person already in the intersection. Even if they shouldn’t have moved into the intersection, once they’re there, you have an obligation to yield to them. I give you permission to be annoyed, but you still need to yield.
The law provides a detailed description of what it means to yield. I think it could be translated to a voice in your head saying, “You might need to stop for traffic up ahead, so slow down and take a look around; if there are already people in the intersection or approaching it ahead of you, they get to go before you.”
And if anyone has ever told you that yield just means slow down, well, that’s part of it, but it’s kind of missing the point. The reason we yield is tied to the fundamental principle of safe driving: do the thing that avoids crashing. And sometimes a proper yield means coming to a complete stop. In fact, the law states that if a driver (or cyclist) is involved in a collision after driving past a yield sign without stopping, “such collision shall be deemed prima facie evidence of the driver’s failure to yield the right-of-way.” That’s the legal way of saying it’s probably your fault.