Civil Obedience, Malicious Compliance

On August 22nd, 2024, the Bike Community in Winnipeg organized itself and demonstrated what it looked like to obey the Highway Traffic Act, which stated that cyclists must ride single file and stop at every stop sign.

From Hilary Rosentreter, one of the organizers:

“Our protest was based on the premise that the Highway Traffic Act, which is the provincial policy governing road-related laws for our region, is inherently harmful to people outside of cars. Not to mention, a common argument we constantly see when calling for safe infrastructure is “cyclists blow stop signs, so they don’t care about safety.” So there is a fundamental misunderstanding among the public of why cyclists “roll through” stop signs, treating them as yields. Enter the Idaho stop. In an effort to bring awareness to our policymakers and the public, we put together an action that would serve to demonstrate what happens when cyclists follow the law, which requires them to act like drivers. (Hint: chaos, car-on-car crashes, impatience, severe congestion…)

For one hour during rush hour traffic, over 65 people on bikes completed many rounds of a figure 8 loop in a residential area that saw every single cyclist ride single file, stop completely (including putting a foot down to make the stop clear from afar), and indicate where they intended to turn.

This action had been percolating in the community for a while, but the time was right to maintain some of the organizational momentum and come out for a joyful/positive reason, rather than always reacting to tragedy.”

Follow the links to see the letter we sent to Provincial Leaders and the Media Release sent out the day before the event. If you want to see the YouTube video of the action, you can view it below and the list of the media coverage received by the event.

Here are some pictures