Do you understand the rules of the road?
So I live in a pretty quiet residential neighbourhood; it's a nice little place with a bunch of one-way streets and a lot of intersections with stop signs in all directions. Now really strange trend seems to have developed of late and I really can't explain it.
Normally in an area with so many stop signs I would expect that most cars would be more than likely to pull a "rolling stop", rather than a proper stop that "The Man" insists we do. And I'm ok with that. A rolling stop isn't likely to hurt anyone; hell I do it often on my bike, it's just easier. And the argument could be made that it's better for your car/fuel efficiency since you aren't having to accelerate from a dead stop. But lately people haven't been doing a rolling stop, or the next logical progression: not stopping at all. What they have been doing is stopping, and waiting, and waiting and waiting!This happens almost every time you come to an intersection and your direction of travel will cross that of the person who got to the intersection first. These people will actually sit there and wait until you come to a full stop before they dare to pass through the intersection. It's as if they all saw some "action" news story about people being intentionally rammed as they drive through intersections.
This afternoon though I got to experience the most stunning example of this. I was biking home, and probably about 50 meters from the intersection, when I saw a car on the opposite side stop with her left turn blinker on. So I just coasted up to the intersection and when I finally got there she was still sitting and waiting. So I stopped, and put my foot down and the woman proceeded to try to wave me through the intersection! Now this is really fucking stupid! She's waited so long that she could have gone through the intersection at least twice before I even got there. I don't know if she thinks she's being really charitable or something or some other BS, but I think that she really has no clue what's going on in the world.
I actually had to yell to her that I had a stop sign and that she was supposed to go. As she drove past she had a perturbed look on her face as she was holding a phone to her ear. All I can hope is that I yelled loud enough that the person on the other end of the line knows just how stupid the woman they're talking to really is.
posted by Christopher Robin at 8:57 p.m.
3 Comments:
I come to a full stop. Especially in uptown with so many bikes and street-parked cars, it's easy to miss seeing one out of the corner of your eye unless you take the extra moment to stop and look around. One of my worst nightmares is the thought of hitting a cyclist.
On the other hand, if I'm cycling, I'll roll through and if not kitted, I'll even blow the occasional red.
3:07 a.m.
I can sympathize. Here in Seattle, I've come to suspect that most people don't actually know how to use four way stops. People either stop and wait so long that everyone else starts going (especially common when I'm on my bike and they feel the need to let me go when it's not my turn), leaving one car sitting at the stop sign through multiple rounds, or they go regardless of who's turn it is.
I've watched cars sit and sit for no apparent reason, and I've gotten honked at when a car decided to ignore all four-way stop procedures and almost crash into me as I made a totally legitimate left turn.
The frustrating thing is, this happens every time I drive.
10:13 a.m.
They may think you have the right of way and wait for you. That's the right thing to do.
Many people (myself included) also will only continue if we believe we have read the intent of the other drivers clearly (or if it doesn't matter). So, if you're an aggressive driver while heading for the intersection, others may conclude that you are about to run the stop sign and wait until you have come to a full stop.
Of course, sometimes people also just put on their makeup or answer a call at a stop sign; that's, of course, not OK.
The primary rule of the road is "proceed only if it is safe to do so".
9:28 a.m.
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