Do you always stop at stop signs / red lights?

[kdonnel]

Inspired by how fast do you drive.....

We have a 4 way stop in my neighborhood and it is a constant source of entertainment on the neighborhood Facebook page. The people who live at the 4 corners are constantly complaining about how many people ignore the stop signs.

The folks on the corner report that:

• 50% of people stop at the stop signs.
• 30% of the people slow roll through the stop sign, either going straight or turning.
• 20% of the people just continue through like the stop sign is not even present, either going straight or turning.

One morning my running partner and I were talking about all the Facebook complaints and he mentioned something that blew my mind.

He doesn't stop at stop signs or red lights if he is driving from about 11pm - 5am. He says he does a mixture of slow rolls or just blowing through like it is not even there. His theory is that at night he can see the headlights of approaching traffic and can safely ignore the stop signs and red lights.

To me it's one thing to ignore a stop sign in a neighborhood setting with a 25 MPH speed limit but he ignores them no matter the number of lanes of traffic or speed limit.

What is your approach to traffic control devices?

 

[BrianL]

YES.

Unlike a little bit of speeding, this is not optional.

 

[walt34]

I always stop at stop signs at all hours.

 

[LoveDaisy]

Yes I do. I live near a stop sign and I can confirm most people do not stop, a lot don’t even slow down. There is about one accident there a month. The utilities pole next to it has been replaced twice in the last year because it was hit. An unmarked police car sits there several days a week pulling cars over that run it. Doesn’t stop people and the police have been doing it for a year I’m in a neighborhood

 

[NannyBeBe]

My driving instructor taught me that if I did not feel my car give a little jerk, I had not fully stopped. That was decades ago and I still always do a complete stop.

 

[lynxstch]

Yes, I always stop at stop signs and red lights. Rules of the road, and being a responsible driver

 

[Allison]

Always

 

[CynBeth]

I always stop at stop signs and red lights and do the full stop.

 

[Kooks and Bay Bay]

100% of the time.
I cannot stand when I see a California roll or worse act like its not thee at all.
I walk around my neighborhood and I actively avoid a couple of corners due to people nearly running me over as I cross.

 

[_19disnA]

Yes, always stop doesn't matter what time of day or where. Stop signs are particularly important since you often can't see traffic approaching on many rural roads. Racing through without stopping is a terrible way to drive. I can't say I have ever seen many people running stop signs or red lights. What I have seen more often is someone will continue through an intersection when the light has just changed to red and clearly way beyond going through a yellow light. Occasionally I will see someone who is coming from a side street and going to turn onto a main road. They LOOK like they would go right through the stop sign if no one else was around. They seem surprised when they didn't notice I was already on that main road and would have pulled out right in front of me.

Once in a great while, I have been at an intersection where the traffic light gets stuck on red. Most people will realize it is malfunctioning and then alternate which lane goes through much like at a 4-way stop sign.

 

[Disnsyncey]

it's almost the easiest traffic rule to follow, and it's a yes or no, not degrees of breaking the rule.....

well, easier might be buckling your seatbelt, but beyond that and staying in your lane......

 

[Disnsyncey]

I always think of my favorite movie, Dave, when Allan is asking him "would you run a red light? what if your grandmother was in the car? America is in the car Dave..." HAHA

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I presume the person thinks that the time of day means less traffic which to them means less likely to encounter other cars which to them means less likely to have an accident. However, that time of day is when you increase traffic accidents related to being under the influence, sleepiness, etc and it's not uncommon IME for it to be reported the driver did not follow traffic signals or ran a stop sign to yikes that running partner is just playing with the odds.

To answer the question yeah I stop and actually the stop sign at end of the exit we use to get to my neighborhood from the highway it's not uncommon to see people pulled over for failure to fully stop. Granted that one is hard because there's a visibility issue with people turning left who pull too far forward who then make the people turning right need to do the same but yeah.

The vast majority of our neighborhood is yield signs with only a few points having actual stop signs mostly when people are coming from the artery streets onto the main street. They did however add an additional stop sign by the elementary school which is where two neighborhoods meet. It now makes it a 3 way stop and that I think was done with the increase in homes built in the abutting neighborhood increasing traffic around the elementary school. When the new stop sign was first installed they put orange flags on all the stop signs to make it really visible and that seemed to help a lot. I do see people rolling stop more when they turn right at the 3-way stop sign where you turn right though.

 

[jimmymc]

Generally yes. The exception is if I'm driving through a really dark area of Detroit at night.

 

[lovesmurfs]

Truth? I'd like to think I always come to a full stop, but reality is that I probably slow roll through some.

 

[PollyannaMom]

My driving instructor taught me that if I did not feel my car give a little jerk, I had not fully stopped. That was decades ago and I still always do a complete stop.

I do always press my brakes to "stop" - time of day or location does not matter, but I will have to pay attention to whether I always feel the car give that little jerk. Obviously at a red light, I'm there until it turns green. But I suspect I sometimes let go of the brake too soon at a stop sign if there are no other cars to wait for.

 

[RedAngie]

Yes, I always stop at red lights and now come to a FULL stop at stop signs.

About three years ago I was pulled over because the cop said I didn’t come to a complete stop while exiting a shopping center lot onto the main road. I don’t know, maybe I didn’t. I think it was a $75 ticket.

(Maybe I should have given the cop a hard time, insulted his intelligence, asked if he nothing better to do, demanded that his supervisor come to the scene, etc. Then when I was forcefully yanked out of the car I could claim that I was pregnant, couldn’t breathe, accuse him of brutality, kick him, etc. I might have gone viral. )

When I was in my early 20s I went through a few red lights like 3 or 4am when there was no other traffic and the light was notoriously slow in turning green. A $100 ticket and some points on my license, plus a big increase in my insurance premium cured me of that transgression.

 

[easyas123]

YES.

Unlike a little bit of speeding, this is not optional.

Agreed

 

[mjkacmom]

Generally yes. The exception is if I'm driving through a really dark area of Detroit at night.

I was going to say always (we have lots if stop signs and lights), but I do roll though them in sketchy areas at night.

 

[Buzz Rules]

Inspired by how fast do you drive.....

We have a 4 way stop in my neighborhood and it is a constant source of entertainment on the neighborhood Facebook page. The people who live at the 4 corners are constantly complaining about how many people ignore the stop signs.

The folks on the corner report that:

• 50% of people stop at the stop signs.
• 30% of the people slow roll through the stop sign, either going straight or turning.
• 20% of the people just continue through like the stop sign is not even present, either going straight or turning.

One morning my running partner and I were talking about all the Facebook complaints and he mentioned something that blew my mind.

He doesn't stop at stop signs or red lights if he is driving from about 11pm - 5am. He says he does a mixture of slow rolls or just blowing through like it is not even there. His theory is that at night he can see the headlights of approaching traffic and can safely ignore the stop signs and red lights.

To me it's one thing to ignore a stop sign in a neighborhood setting with a 25 MPH speed limit but he ignores them no matter the number of lanes of traffic or speed limit.

What is your approach to traffic control devices?

I follow all traffic laws required by law.