Do you stop at stop signs?
 

I'd say it's one of the best hypermiling techniques to avoid all unnecessary stops.

i find if i let my self roll through a few signs, i get lazy and i am sure iwould end up with a ticket or worse

And, depending on your community, one of the best ways of getting a ticket from a lurking cop, posted to monitor the stop sign.

BTW, radar detectors don't work at warning you of this. :p

Sort of a personal question. Too many armchair cops here to expect honest answers.

I stop all the time at lights and stop signs. My stop at stop signs is usually good for the next person or two behind me also, as they usually just follow me through. I also use my signals when turning or changing lanes.

I think quite a few people feel if they hit the brakes and slow down, that counts as a stop.

Sometimes I get angry at stupid stop signs and just I pretend that I didn't see them. Never been ticketed.

If there is nobody around at all, in secluded areas of town and especially in rural areas, I will just ignore stop signs. Of course I would only do that when it is safe.

Stop lights I always stop at. They are something more serious, harder to explain how you didn't see them, and they are always placed at important/busy areas. That said in the past I worked until 3am and there was nobody on the road so I ignored that stuff.

When appropriate (Late hours) in familiar areas with a good line of sight of the other roads, I'll roll through them with some speed. It's a common sense thing; if there's other traffic then come to a complete stop and use right of way, and don't roll signs where you don't have a clear line of sight of the cross road well before the sign.

One point that should be noted that in Texas, if you're ticketed at a sign that is not DOT approved, you can often fight the ticket. I heard this tactic years ago, and I don't know if the loop hole still works, so don't test my theory.. ;)

In Belgium, stop signs are not allowed unless you can't yield without stopping.
So if I can safely yield to crossing traffic without stopping, the stop sign shouldn't have been there, and putting it there was a violation of traffic rules by itself.
These are the ones I'll happily roll through.

OTOH I'll stop, even when there's no stop sign, when visibility is poor.


The US could see a major reduction in its automotive fuel use just by getting rid of the silly, wasteful 4-way stops and replace them with priority / yield signs according to traffic densities.

I always stop at stop signs. Complete, tires stopped. There are way too many "in memory of" signs, crosses with flowers, etc around the stop signs here. People blow through the signs and pay the ultimate price. Not worth it in my book.

Turn signals - always always always. Even if I am the only one on the road.

To me, SAFETY should be the very first item on the top 100 hypermiling techniques.

I won't say I completely stop every time, but I do slow to very near stopped. People that run stop signs annoy the crap out of me, same with people who can't be bothered to move their hand 6 inches or less to flip their blinker on.

People here have no idea what yield is. I the past few years the have replaced some of the two way stop with small circles. People on what was the non stop side ( all four sides now have a yield sign) just blast through, even if you have already started in to the circle and are approaching their lane.

But yes, we throw up stop signs like that is the fix for bad drivers, speeders and poor enforcement. Stop lights almost as bad.

Our "progress" and "development" is leading to more and more stop signs and stop lights along previously unencumbered routes, leading to real reductions in trip efficiency regardless of traffic density. When I think it's appropriate from a safety viewpoint and from a "is there likely to be a cop lurking" viewpoint, I treat stop signs as yield signs.

Some stop signs really ought to be yield signs; there's one in particular that has miles of unrestricted visibility in both directions and is in a reduced speed zone anyway, that should be a yield sign but the cops, city, and courts seem to enjoy the revenue it probably produces. I got nailed at that one; the next evening I did my own survey (took the cop's hiding spot) and found that out of 20 cars, only 2 came to complete, non-rolling stops. The best one was the cop car that rolled through. :rolleyes: However, the judge was completely unimpressed with my findings. :mad:

If you're gonna play, you might hafta pay.

If I am alone at the intersection I slow down to just barely rolling ("That was not a complete stop. I saw that the horizon was still moving" as my wife's driving instructor said). But if there is someone else I will often stop, even if I could roll while letting him pass, just so he knows that I see him and give him the right-of-way.

This talk about lurking police, etc., reminds me of a commercial that our TV ran just before New Year 1999/2000: It's the middle of the night, a couple is coming home from a new year's party, an intersection in the middle of nowhere, all 4 directions have a red light, no-one else in sight. The driver waits, waits, waits, finally decides to slowly pass the red light. As soon as he clears the intersection a policeman jumps out from behind a bush with a wide grin on his face. Then a voice says something like: "Not everything may be working when you wake up in Y2k, but you can be sure that our company's telecom services will be just fine."

When I'm driving I always stop. I stop for the car I don't see. However when I bicycle I treat stop signs as yields.

Bicycling- that's probably where I got those rolling stops from. I bicycle more often than I drive.

I have two stop signs in my neighborhood that I treat as yield signs. There's excellent line of sight and I slow down enough to make sure I could stop if a bicyclist was blowing through the intersection I could stop short. Otherwise, in my city travels I stop, look, creep forward, look again, and then go. Way too many pedestrians get hit in our downtown to even carefully role a stop sign. In the last 10 years we've had 4 of 51 employees hit by cars, with two of those spending the night or more in the hospital.

Regarding US traffic laws, it's silly how many intersections could be converted to a yield sign. Probably on the order of 80% of them from what I've seen. Worse yet, the city of Golden put in roundabouts several years ago to reduce the severity of accidents and improve traffic flow. While it has worked on both accounts, now accidents are on the rise. Why, you may ask? Because they covered the entry medians and roundabouts with shrubbery and trees that are finally maturing so you have no sight lines. The city says the shrubbery makes people drive slower, but all it really does is gives you a choice; stop or collide. They've destroyed a perfectly functional solution with 5' of dense shrubs.

When I drive I come to an almost stop. That gives me enough time to check if there is a cop present.

When I bike I virtually never stop or even slow down unless there is a car approaching. The looking to see if there is any potential danger is more important than the stopping.

Besides, you don't need a license to ride a bicycle. (At least not yet, thank God.):rolleyes:

I was visiting a friend in Coeur d'Alene a few years ago and every morning we rode the same route to get to breakfast. At first I stopped at every stop sign, but then found her blowing through most of them. I was in total holiday mode and started doing the same without noticing she was only blowing through the four-way stops. Just as I entered one intersection I saw a pick up coming way too fast to stop. I locked it up but with 700C tires, it wasn't a very quick stop. I missed getting hit, but he'd also slammed the brakes, which made him stop right in front of me and I ended up broadsiding him. No bones broken, but had to take a well deserved a$$ chewing and straighten out my front wheel before I could ride on. Since then, I've paid a lot more attention to those cross streets.:rolleyes:

We don't normally have the full "Stop" sign although apparently our one contribution to EU sign standards when we joined was the word "Stop" in favour of any other phrase / word / logo - the continent rejoiced... :D

Normally we have "Give Way" which is the same as "Yield" in the US, with some Stop signs but they are normally at places where the junction is blind - i.e. you wouldn't see it until it was too late if the sign wasn't there.

We have uncontrolled junctions - 4 ways with no stop - and I was taught by my dad (ex cop) to always stop or slow to a low crawl on them - it worked as this was the 'trick' the driving examiner liked to pull on victims, er, I mean candidates.

Unfortunately a lot of bikers (pedal style) do this here - I watched one getting mown down only last week after continuing against a red light and then trying to blame the driver involved (bus).

When he realised the number of witnesses who saw what really happened he decided just to accept a lift to A&E and shut up.

Ain't that the truth, my apartment complex is filled with stop signs due to the Dip****'s that don't understand the concept of looking for other cars, now if we could only get them used to the concept of looking for the signs we would be good to go.

Depending on traffic, I'll "California Roll" through the sign, if there is any cross traffic in sight I stop completely

Do we stop at STOP signs ?? *

Are you joking ?

* of course !

In our neighborhood there are multiple intersections with yields rather than stops. The trick is stringing them together to get to a main road without stopping. I've thought of petitioning to change all the rest (depending on visibility) I think that the fuel savings angle could be a good argument.

I ALWAYS stop at stop signs and stop lights. To do otherwise is illegal. Coasting downhill in neutral is also illegal in Arizona. (ARS 28-895) Therefore, I NEVER coast downhill in neutral. I will not admit in public to doing anything illegal.

3/4 of the things I say on the internet are lies anyways.

My mileage claims and any references to a 450 mile tank have been thoroughly vetted by the Legacy GT community and I am officially a lying POS who smokes crack.

Now I just have to lay low until they legalize medicinal crack.

That reminds me of a "dream" have... A city-wide networked system of "smart" traffic lights such that they can all "learn" how to minimize the time spent stopped at a light for every car. AI would be great for that kind of thing. Of course each light would be able to operate independently in case of severed communications or power outage.

The negative side I see to that is that it would be a great reason for politicians to push RFID tags in cars and sensors everywhere. Of course, they would tell us that the reason for them is to make the route more efficient, but not mention that they are keeping tabs on us.

Taxed by the mile. *shudder*

I believe taxed by the mile is coming whether we like it or not. :mad: If people would get a grip on their #(%$&% replicating, perhaps it wouldn't have to come to that.

How many times have we all witnessed lights that seem to be timed for maximum inconvenience i.e. there's totally nobody coming on the cross street that the light just made you stop and wait for... then after you've been there for an eternity with still no cross traffic, it changes just in time to make some poor sap that finally did just arrive at that intersection on the cross street stop??? It is as if someone is deriving perverse pleasure from making as many vehicles as possible stop. :mad:

I've got a street with those: At night the lights turn red just before the car enters the intersection. This is supposedly to stop people from racing. Yeah, right. Everyone just blows through the red without a second thought. The PSL is 70 km/h, I'm usually going 60-70 and have to pull my teeth out of the steering wheel at each light. If I go 40, then I sometimes roll through the light just as it turns green again. I've heard that going 160 will allow you to enter the intersect before the light goes red, I haven't checked, but others have. I have nothing against green waves as long as there is info about the speed I have to go to ride it. I don't take that route anymore.

Oh, and then there is another light on a road nearby: It blinks yellow until an approaching car going close to or above the 50km/h PSL turns it red. After a week everyone noticed that there is no intersection, no ped crossing, so no reason to stop when it's red. I have no problem with going 40-45 to keep the light from turning red, but I do have a problem with the drivers who pass me right in front of that light. They trigger the red, but keep going, while I have to wait. :mad::mad:

We have ones which go to red for speeders - which is OK-ish.

Except I'm usually the one who also has to stop having just been wooshed past by a speeder...

Stop. It's a stop sign, right? If you work it right, it doesn't have to hurt your mileage too much. (see below ;))

There are some that really should be yield signs instead. I still stop.

Wow. At least Texas highway engineers don't put lights in specifically to stop people who go too fast or just if any poor soul is approaching. The worst we get here is a light that is timed grossly wrong because the lazy planners don't ever RESEARCH and adjust the light timings. And stop signs.

Don't even get me started on engineers/designers who don't research...:mad:

Until a few years ago, there was a light adjacent to our neighborhood. I tell you, it would wait 10 minutes for the people leaving the neighborhood before it would change. Then it would stay green for 5 seconds. Finally they adjusted it but it needs a shorter wait time between a car pulling up and it changing.

If I was that upset about the shrubs blocking the view, I might just go cut them all down. Or hire the tree trimming company that the city/jurisdiction uses (around here it's Asplundh)

That reminds me... there's an intersection at a neighborhood I visit often (with a stop sign). A small residential street leading into a 4 lane suburban street (40 mph limit). Someone, who happens to own the corner house on the left, seems to think that it is a good idea to have a row of big bushes planted against his fence (near the bigger street) to obscure the already bad sight line to make it impossible to see if anyone is approaching for more than 35ish meters. If I'm feeling especially mad one day, I may just remove that with a cordless sawzall and a pruning blade... but I doubt that I'll do it anytime soon.

I stop at stop signs even though most of them should be yield signs.

I couldn't agree more - especially is areas that are basically deserted. Stop signs all over the place just make things worse.

There's a completely worthless 3-way stop in my office complex parking lot. I always coast right through it. I also tend to roll stops in my neighborhood. I won't roll through signal-controlled intersections though.

Oh yah, parking lots. I pretty much ignore those and just drive very carefully. Stop if I need to stop and ignore everything if I'm alone, etc

Because I've had driving jobs most of my life, I value having my license VERY SERIOUSLY!!! I'm going to stop for signs/lights. The tiny bit of fuel saved: will it cover a potential ticket, and insurance rate increases??

I get rather annoyed when I see someone who won't STAY at a red light because they don't feel like it!

As for the cyclists (bicycle)... I see plenty of radical ones around Portland who ignore all laws thereby INFLAMING auto drivers against them. This problem of aggressive warfare between the two groups has grown immensely in the last few yrs. Many cyclists, because of their blatant rudeness are looked upon with as much hate as any Harley biker could be... Mix a redneck PU guy w a preppy know it all bicycle rider: its not pretty!

In areas where stop signs seem to be put up as almost just a simple tradition, instead of thinking fresher, officials should be reminded that the stop not only uses more gas, but causes more pollution as well. Thankfully roundabouts are increasing quite a bit around here; but I'm sure thats not the case everywhere.

It's kind of ironic that a total urbanite who maybe doesn't go more than 5 miles a day has so many options...bus/bike/walk/moped/scooter... even the most gas sucking V8 in an old car works as depreciation is gone, they inherently hold together well (60's-early70's) repair cheap, and as long as they are not driven far; won't cost much.

Then at the other end; is the country guy w little to no stoplights/signs to worry with, but must travel many miles to get somewhere, so a mpg veh. becomes a high need, but most of the that kind of driving is the most peaceful and mellow.

Stuck in the middle(just like the song) is the supposed utopia of life where most of the population is, all clashing light to light, with the new'hoods springing up stopsigns like rabbits. It's probably the most difficult place to drive "happy!"

I've chosen country for the peace and "FLOW". I realize not everyone can do that. I'd still rather put up w a pesky rooster than to hear 9mm's and fire/police sirens all the time!

In conclusion, if you pedal bikes, please think how you appear to others. A full stop won't cost you any gas, and might save your life.

Peace to all!

exactly the same for me.
I "roll" through most stop signs, but by rolling I mean Im going slow enough it doesnt even measure on the speedo :turtle: then use 2nd gear.
but I ALWAYS stop at lights, and cannot understand why some people choose not to ?

I do. With the states being so broke (Especially Illinois !) tickets have doubled in price and many cops are on the lookout lately to ticket you for anything !!

Regarding cyclist behavior on the road, you might find this blog post from "Joey Bike" an interesting read. It provides and interesting perspective from behind the handle bars of a New Orleans commuter. Bicycling New Orleans: Bending The Rules of the Road - Class 101

-Robert

Any cyclist running red light = moron.

TBH anyone running red light = moron.