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While the intersection is unorthodox since it is a curve, you can see every corner from the driver's position as well as drivers in the adjacent direction as it is a three way stop.
The stop sign does its job as evident with the video. The cop was positioned out of view to tell whether a complete stop was made. At 0:55, I believe you can see the officer vehicle parked to the left as the driver proceeds to turn right.
If I am correct about the officer's position, he would be located on the shoulder. The driver was coming from the North. Using Street View, the officer had no way of verifying whether a complete stop was made since his view was obstructed from the trees. Anyone who approach the intersection from the South would have notice the driver stopping.
The fact is, Saudi Arabia has about twice as many road deaths per capita as the USA, and seven times as many road deaths per vehicle. However, I doubt that "rolling stops" is a significant contributor to the cause of this rate.
People planning their vacation will be edified to know that the popular tourist destinations of Dominican Republic and Thailand are in the top four in the world in per-capita road deaths. Most African countries have per-vehicle death rates 50-100 times as high as the USA. Again, probably not caused by rolling stops.
Saudi data is not available for deaths per miles driven, but United Arab Emirates has the highest in the world, six times as high as any other country,and I wouldn't expect their very similar neighbor Saudi Arabia to be far behind.
For all of our ticket-hungry cops and their money-driven zealotry, the US ranks only in the top third among all countries in traffic deaths per capita -- worse than places like Bangladesh, Jamaica and Uzbekistan. And about the middle of the pack for deaths per mile traveled.
It illustrates to me just how legalistic and petty traffic cops and the whole traffic enforcement system is. To me it shouldn't matter if you come to a "complete" stop, a "rolling" stop should be fine. The point is that you're not supposed to just blow through that intersection recklessly and risk running into the other person who has the right of way, you're to apply "due care" by slowing down very significantly and make sure no one is coming before easing through. If you can do that safely at 10 mph vs dead-stopped, I say good enough--and the cops who don't like it can go choke on a donut.
An anecdote told to me years ago in school by our history teacher, who on that day was talking about multi-cultural experiences, is very telling. She spoke of how someone from Saudi Arabia visited the USA for the first time and after a period of time he was asked what the main differences were which he noted about the USA vs his home country of Saudi Arabia. He had many potential subjects from which to choose--all of the shopping malls, consumerism otherwise, fast food places, manner of dress of the people, personal habits, equality of women, prevalence of television, Sony Walkmans (this was back in the 80s), the cars, the climate--any number of things.
Out of all of these possibilities, what he chose to point out as the main difference was this--how the police interpreted stop signs. As he told it, back in his home country, a "rolling stop" was just fine, and as long as you didn't hit somebody or come dangerously close to doing so, you were okay. He was shocked at how in the USA you ALWAYS had to come to a TOTAL stop even if it was a non-busy road and no one was coming as far as you could see, and even if you had slowed down to (say) 10 mph. Yet, apparently, Saudi Arabia did NOT have dramatically more car accidents in spite of this, if any at all.
That's very telling if you ask me.
It is also why, as a cyclist, I do NOT apologize for running stop signs in places such as residential areas where the traffic is light, you can see well in advance, and frankly they don't NEED so many stop signs. (I am NOT talking about zooming into a busy street without even looking and causing everyone to have to slam on their brakes.) I swear in such places they will have a stop sign seemingly every 3 inches. They don't NEED that many. If riding a bicycle gives me the freedom to run those signs because typically there's little if any enforcement of such things, then good enough. I'd run them in a car too if I could get away with it.
Oh, YOU are one of those cyclists (and motorists, come to that) who give cyclists a bad name because you think that "stop" means "yield" (which is what a "rolling stop" is, it is not stopping no matter how much you want to pretend it is) and that traffic laws that are inconvenient to you don't mean what they very clearly do mean. Why am I not surprised.
A prime example of why some -- perhaps even many -- people have no love lost for the police. They lie -- and defend each other when they're caught lying, and they'll even make stuff up to cover up their lying. Yet they're worshipped as heroes. And they get indignant and arrogant -- and retaliate -- when they're called on it. I'm so sick of their 'thin blue line' crap.
Oh, YOU are one of those cyclists (and motorists, come to that) who give cyclists a bad name because you think that "stop" means "yield" (which is what a "rolling stop" is, it is not stopping no matter how much you want to pretend it is) and that traffic laws that are inconvenient to you don't mean what they very clearly do mean. Why am I not surprised.
Thank you for the compliment. I appreciate it. It's calling HAVING A BRAIN and realizing stupidity for what it is and refusing to be a slave to it. Why stop if you don't need to? It's stupid, it wastes time and energy, all to fulfill some legalistic nonsense? Like I said, I have more brains than that, I don't submit myself to inferior thinking.
Judging from the video, the stop sign needs to be moved closer to the intersection. There may be another road we can't see from the video, but the roads I do see in the video indicate the sign was placed too far from the intersection to be effective. If a second stop is needed, then put in a second stop sign.
Thank you for the compliment. I appreciate it. It's calling HAVING A BRAIN and realizing stupidity for what it is and refusing to be a slave to it. Why stop if you don't need to? It's stupid, it wastes time and energy, all to fulfill some legalistic nonsense? Like I said, I have more brains than that, I don't submit myself to inferior thinking.
You're one of those critical mass protestors who flaunt the law. When I commuted by bike, I walked the cross walk as a pedestrian. If a vehicle ran the red light or stop sign, I could jump out the way sacrificing my bike. I got thumbs up from other drivers when I did this as well as making room for motor vehicles instead of riding the center of the road daring drivers to hit me.
Correction. I stop then ride through stop signs. I walk as a pedestrian through lighted intersections since the majority here are sensor activated and bicycles won't activate them.
You're one of those critical mass protestors who flaunt the law. When I commuted by bike, I walked the cross walk as a pedestrian. If a vehicle ran the red light or stop sign, I could jump out the way sacrificing my bike. I got thumbs up from other drivers when I did this as well as making room for motor vehicles instead of riding the center of the road daring drivers to hit me.
Well hurrah for you. Laws wouldn't be "flaunted" if they made more sense. It makes no sense to be told you have to COMPLETELY stop when there's no one coming and the way is clear, and it makes no sense to have stop signs erected seemingly every 5 inches on the road. If they'd stop doing such stupid stuff, they wouldn't see so much flaunting, now would they? (In the "crosswalk" scenario, I do actually tend to walk vs ride, though.)
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