Man receives erant ticket after stopping at stop sign

[jackmccullough]

This is a badly designed intersection. The sign should be much closer to the junction of the roads, probably at least ten feet ahead of where it is.

The driver didn't do anything wrong. On the other hand, if the driver stopped and then failed to stop again if a second stop was necessary to avoid an accident, his failure to avoid the accident would have been his fault.

[victimofGM]

Originally Posted by shyguylh

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.

That's because their police are more concerned with things involved with Sharia law like women driving, women showing skin, women leaving home without being in the company of a male relative, someone being homosexual, someone openly practicing a religion that isn't Islam, or a Muslim leaving Islam for a different religion.

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

The dash cam proves the man followed the law. It's clear that the PD was attempting to "scam" themselves into more revenue. Hopefully more drivers will get the cameras-if the actions of the PD are a pattern the department deserves to get sued and the head LEO fired. Or preferrably prosecuted.