South Carolina Passed the Bicycle Safety Stop. When’s our turn?

South Carolina’s new bicycle safety stop law began with a chance conversation on a group ride. A legislator heard why traffic laws designed for cars do not always make sense for bicycles and asked advocates to send language to his office. Six months later, Governor Henry McMaster signed the “Palmetto Stop.”

The bill passed the Senate 42–2 and the House 93–18. It allows people on bikes to slow and yield at stop signs, and, after slowing and yielding, to proceed cautiously through a red light.

“We pulled this off in six months with barely any opposition,” Regan Freeman of Palmetto Walk Bike told CalBike. Advocates described the proposal as a practical update to the vehicle code, submitted federal safety research, and brought in coalition partners who could speak to local conditions. Their simplest argument may have been the most effective: “With this update, bikes get out of the way faster.”

South Carolina is now one of a dozen states with a statewide safety stop law. The details vary, but the basic principle has spread across red and blue states alike: people on bikes must slow down, yield to anyone with the right of way, and stop whenever safety requires it. Some states apply the rule only to stop signs; others also let riders proceed through red lights after stopping and yielding.

California had its opportunity in 2021, when lawmakers passed AB 122 and sent it to Governor Gavin Newsom. He vetoed it, arguing that the bill could reduce safety and saying it was “especially concerning for children,” who might have difficulty judging vehicle speeds and yielding appropriately. The following year, legislators returned with a version limited to adults, directly answering that objection, but the measure was withdrawn ahead of another expected veto.

In the years since, Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico, and South Carolina have moved forward. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has concluded that the laws increase visibility, reduce exposure in intersections, and have shown safety benefits where studied.

Place	Year passed	What the law allows
Idaho	1982	Stop signs may be treated as yields; riders may proceed through a red light after stopping and yielding.
Delaware	2017	Stop-as-yield applies at intersections with roads of two lanes or fewer; red lights remain unchanged.
Arkansas	2019	Stop signs may be treated as yields; red lights may be treated as stop signs.
Oregon	2019, effective 2020	Stop signs and flashing red signals may be treated as yields; steady red lights remain unchanged.
Washington	2020	Stop signs may be treated as yields; the law does not create a general red-light exception.
North Dakota	2021	Stop signs may be treated as yields; the safety stop law does not change steady red lights.
Oklahoma	2021	Stop signs may be treated as yields; riders may proceed through red lights after stopping and yielding.
Utah	2021	Stop signs may be treated as yields. A separate rule allows riders aged 16 or older to proceed through a red light after stopping and waiting at least 90 seconds.
Colorado	2022	Riders aged 15 or older, and younger riders accompanied by an adult, may treat stop signs as yields and red lights as stop signs.
Minnesota	2023	Stop signs may be treated as yields; traffic lights remain unchanged.
New Mexico	2025	Stop signs may be treated as yields; riders may proceed through red lights after stopping and yielding.
South Carolina	2026	Stop signs may be treated as yields; riders may proceed through red lights after stopping and yielding. Right turns on red require slowing and yielding but not a complete stop.
Washington, D.C.	2022	Stop signs may be treated as yields. Riders may turn right on red after stopping; other movements on red require specific signage.
Anchorage, Alaska	2023	A local, rather than statewide, law allows bicyclists and other vulnerable road users to yield at stop signs and proceed through red lights after stopping when safe.

 

The evidence has continued to move in the same direction. A 2024 NHTSA study found that stop-as-yield laws were associated with lower crash rates, did not increase crashes involving children, and did not encourage more reckless riding. A separate UC Berkeley analysis found no statistically significant change in crash risk after states adopted the policy. The research differs on whether the safety gains are measurable, but it does not support the central fear behind California’s repeated hesitation: that allowing people on bikes to yield at clear intersections makes those intersections more dangerous.

South Carolina’s politics are different from California’s, but that is precisely what makes the Palmetto Stop instructive. This is no longer a novel experiment associated with one unusually bike-friendly state. It is a modest traffic reform that has survived contact with lawmakers across the political spectrum.

“If South Carolina can do it, California can,” Freeman said. “Come on now, y’all.”

With a new governor being sworn in next year, it’s an idea whose time not only has come, but is long overdue, and “The Golden Stop” does have a nice ring to it.