By Damon Scott
Members of Albuquerque’s large and vocal bicycling community are excited this week about a bill that’s successfully made its way to the desk of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham before the 2025 legislative session comes to a close Saturday.
Senate Bill 73, also known as the Idaho Stop bill, was voted through the House on Monday (39-27) after moving through three committee hearings and clearing the Senate earlier this month (36-2).
Idaho Stop is the term used for a measure that allows bicyclists to treat a stop sign as a yield sign and a red light as a stop sign. Supporters say it’s a valuable option for bicyclists to have in order to avoid being cut off or hit by vehicles making right turns. In the case of a red light, bicyclists have the option to proceed instead of waiting for the light to turn green.
Leila Murrieta, a board director at BikeABQ, describes it as solving the “right hook” problem — when drivers, especially those in large vehicles — often can’t see bicyclists in their blind spot.
Murrieta and others say the law also helps to ease frustrated and sometimes aggressive drivers who get irked by bicyclists occupying traffic lanes. If a bicyclist is first to arrive at an intersection, for example, its weight isn’t enough to trigger the streetlight’s “trip system” as it does for a vehicle, causing time to drag on before the light changes or a driver can turn right. The Idaho Stop law gives the bicyclist the option to proceed in such a case.
Longtime New Mexico bicyclist Lynn Pickard told City Desk ABQ on Wednesday that the bill had received either unanimous or close to unanimous support as it winded its way through the House and Senate committee process. She’s optimistic that Lujan Grisham will sign it into law.
“I would hope that she would sign this bill that will get more people on their bicycles and will be particularly beneficial to people who commute by bicycle and go through a lot of intersections,” Pickard said.
Pickard said her research shows that about 25% of bicycle-vehicle accidents occur at intersections, and states that have adopted the legislation have seen incidents decline about 15%.
Those who typically oppose the bill, she said, do so out of a perception that it unduly exempts bicyclists from following traffic laws. But the only time a bicyclist can employ the Idaho Stop is when there’s no oncoming traffic and nobody else has the right of way, like a pedestrian. Even when all is clear, proceeding is up to the bicyclist’s discretion.
Pickard and groups like BikeABQ plan to implement plans to educate drivers and bicyclists across the state if the bill becomes law.
Idaho was the first to enact the law in 1982 and Colorado was the last in 2022. If signed by Lujan Grisham, New Mexico would become the 10th state to implement it. BikeABQ is asking supporters to urge the governor to sign the bill by calling (505) 476-2200 or going online.
For more: Advocates say law makes bicyclists safer, drivers less hostile