It was like any other morning commute for James Carruthers on Friday, Aug. 20.

The senior executive with B.C. Women’s Hospital Foundation was cycling west on 10th Avenue, making a routine trip on the designated bike route he’d used hundreds of times since moving to Vancouver from Ontario in 2005.

When he reached the four-way stop at Manitoba Street, he slowed his pace, scanned for traffic and rolled ahead without coming to a complete stop.

“Not only can I tell if there are other vehicles at the intersection as I approach it, I can see well beyond to know even if other vehicles are anywhere near the intersection,” Carruthers, 39, told the Courier. There were no other vehicles, pedestrians or cyclists in sight, he said. “There was no one there but me.”

“I safely and quickly proceeded through the intersection. No one’s safety was even remotely at risk.”

Carruthers broke the law. A police cruiser lay waiting and an officer issued a $167 ticket for failing to obey the traffic sign.

Cycling advocates across B.C. are pushing to change this road rule and amend the provincial Motor Vehicle Act so cyclists like Carruthers can legally yield at a stop sign instead of completely putting on the breaks before accelerating again.

The “stop as yield law” or “rolling stop law” is associated with Idaho after the state became the first—and so far, the only—North American jurisdiction to implement such right-of-way allowances in 1983.

The statute allows any bicycle or human-powered vehicle “after slowing to a reasonable speed and yielding the right-of-way” to “cautiously make a turn or proceed through the intersection without stopping.” At a steady red light, a cyclist must come to a full stop but can then lawfully cross against the light.

“Cyclists have to basically follow all the rules that govern motor vehicles,” said Arno Schortinghuis, a director with Metro Vancouver and B.C. cycling coalitions.

But most vehicles are far heavier, travel at much higher speeds and afford less visibility than a bicycle, he said. “A bicycle should be treated differently. They don’t have near the level of danger that vehicles have.”

The Motor Vehicle Act could also benefit from a new title, said Schortinghuis. “We’d actually like to see the name changed to the ‘Road Users Act’ or something to include cyclists and pedestrians.”

Scott Edwards, who manages Vancouver’s greenway transportation project, says the Motor Vehicle Act must change before the city can rewrite the rules of the road to suit the more vulnerable users identified by Schortinghuis.

In the interim, said Edwards, cycling infrastructure such as traffic circles allow cyclists to keep rolling.

COPE Coun. Geoff Meggs wants the Motor Vehicle Act amended to reflect the many vehicles that share city streets. He will seek support for a motion in support of a change at the annual meeting of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities in October.

Carruthers is disputing the traffic ticket. “Catch me running a red light at a busy intersection or riding dangerously, weaving among cars on a busy auto-route—then you’ll see me put my tail between my legs and pay the ticket early for the discount,” he said.

“I simply can’t believe that deploying officers to catch commuter cyclists radar-trap style on one of the quietest, most popular cycle routes we have, is anything less than a gross misuse of valuable law enforcement and city resources.”

mstewart@vancourier.com