# Drivers that stop for you **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 28, 2013, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drivers-that-stop-for-you/656890 "2013-04-28T05:18:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drivers-that-stop-for-you/656890/41 "2013-04-30T18:54:36Z")
It’s a complex situation and makes me really wish there weren’t so many places where big 2000 pound pieces of metal and squishy humans share the same space. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drivers-that-stop-for-you/656890/42 "2013-04-30T19:50:39Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > What drives me nuts-and it happens fucking repeatedly-is drivers on the cross street coming to a stop when I stop at my stop sign, despite the fact that they _don’t have a freakin’ stop sign_, and then being nice enough to wave me on. :smack: I once was driving on a street that had right-of-way, approaching an intresection where the cross street had the stop signs – my street did not. Another driver rolled up to the stop sign on my right and stopped. When I proceeded through the intersection without stopping, however, he pulled out suddenly, screaming with rage and pointing at the non-existent stop sign he imagined I’d just flouted. Apparently he had assumed it was a four-way stop and it REALLY pissed him off that I “ran” the stop sign instead of stopping for him. Hint: only _actual_ road signs apply. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drivers-that-stop-for-you/656890/43 "2013-04-30T20:23:05Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Exactly what I was talking about in post #15. If I’m walking and more than one car is in line I won’t cross if it stops for me, and if I’m driving I won’t stop for a pedestrian if someone is behind me. Wait, so you just stop in the middle of the crosswalk? Or do you go back to where you came from? ---
**Author:** ![drewc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@drewc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewc)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drivers-that-stop-for-you/656890/44 "2013-05-02T22:23:49Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Got a cite? No need, when I handled auto liability claim investigations this happened far too often. One of many staged accident fraud scenarios we see far too many of in NJ in particular. Often there isn’t sufficient evidence to prove fraud so the claims get paid. But the industry tracks those questionable claims CLOSELY and if you make a habit of it, you will get caught eventually. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drivers-that-stop-for-you/656890/45 "2013-05-03T00:54:04Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > He’s talking about when two cars are involved. I haven’t heard of that happening though I’m sure it has. Most of the time it’s just a misguided attempt at being “nice”, unfortunately it’s really fucking stupid because when you be “nice” by not following the road rules no one around you knows what you are going to do next. Happens to me often. I live on a residential street that crosses a busier street in the middle of an S turn. It’s very hard to get out there sometimes. In the morning people are coming to the busy street from the opposite direction. They have the right of way as they are (usually) turning with traffic. There’s a break in traffic on the busy street and instead of just going, they wait on me because I was at the intersection first. While we decide who’s going to go…our break in traffic ends and I beat my head against the steering wheel and curse. If they just took thier right of way as soon as we got a break it would be much better. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drivers-that-stop-for-you/656890/46 "2013-05-03T02:04:10Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > If they just took thier right of way as soon as we got a break it would be much better. Their damn politeness is teaching me to be much more aggressive. As soon as I see them start to slow down, I cut them off just to avoid the annoying “You first!” “No, I insist” nonsense. I don’t even wait to be waved through because they are so predictable. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drivers-that-stop-for-you/656890/47 "2013-05-03T03:40:20Z")
This is exactly why, when I was still a pedestrian (I went 15 years — as an adult — without a driver’s license), I just got in the habit of standing well back from the curb when I was waiting to cross the street. Some specific reasons why: • For a while, my walk to and from work required me to cross a bridge’s on-ramp. This was a cloverleaf ramp that people driving down my town’s main street would take to get on the bridge to cross the river. Being an on-ramp, there were no traffic signals or marked crosswalk. From my preferred crossing point, I had a clear view of oncoming traffic and I would scan the oncoming cars to pick the best time to cross. I was happy to wait for a safe spot; I wasn’t in a hurry, and I don’t like to inconvenience other people. I finally started waiting about 10 feet back from the curb so I’d look like I was just loafing instead of waiting to cross, after about the third instance of somebody stopping for me and holding up a big, long line of cars • Similar to the OP, I was once on the curb at a marked crosswalk, waiting to cross a 3-lane, one-way street. I had a “DON’T WALK” signal, because the cars had green lights. An idiot driver in the nearest lane literally stopped right in the middle of the intersection and waved for me to cross, apparently oblivious to the onrushing traffic in the other two lanes and the horns blowing behind him. • I once exited a shop downtown, on our main street, whose front door happened to be almost directly in line with the middle-of-the-block crosswalk. My bicycle was chained to a lamp post near the crosswalk. I unlocked my bicycle, then spent some time placing my purchase into my backpack, putting on my helmet and getting it adjusted … only to look up and find that a woman had stopped her car (and everybody else behind her) and was waving me across. And because she was stopped at the crosswalk, the cars coming from the _other_ direction stopped. So now traffic is stopped in both directions, and these drivers are ignoring my attempts to wave them on. It was stupid because _I had no intention of crossing the street_! Idiots. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drivers-that-stop-for-you/656890/48 "2013-05-03T05:04:36Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > As each municipality writes and enforces it’s own traffic laws, I’m not going to research and cite multiple cities’ laws on this. However, most local laws do say that pedestrians in a crosswalk have the right of way over vehicles. Such laws are more likely state-wide in each state, rather than each municipality. In California (and I suspect this is similar elsewhere), a pedestrian _already in the street_ has right-of-way. I don’t know of a law that says cars must stop for pedestrians while the pedestrian is still on the curb or sidewalk. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drivers-that-stop-for-you/656890/49 "2013-05-03T05:39:21Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I live in Montreal, where we never have the problem mentioned in the OP. Seriously, I’ve never been in that situation. I went to university in Montreal in 1988. First time I had lived away from home in northern Ontario. First time I learned that jaywalking was safer than crossing with the lights. Seriously scary traffic there in Montreal. Of course, Vancouver is also bad. In a totally different way. ---
**Author:** ![sidhechaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sidhechaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidhechaos)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drivers-that-stop-for-you/656890/50 "2013-05-04T04:11:06Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > I was a pedestrian at a 4-way-intersection where all but one way had stop signs; the direction without a stop sign was crossing a railroad track that parallels the cross-street so you just want them to keep moving. I was waiting for a car coming from that direction to head straight through the intersection. Instead, the driver stopped in the _middle of the freaking intersection_ to wave me across! I stepped back with a horrified look and did the “no way” hand motion, and fortunately she took the hint and kept going. > > And yeah, one notable “wave the other car in” move that I saw involved a car trying to cross two lanes of traffic to turn left into a third. She had the two from the left (in stopped traffic, so the cars ahead of them weren’t moving either) waving her through, but unfortunately she couldn’t see (around the stopped cars) that traffic was still coming from the right in the lane she was trying to turn into. Bam, T-boned. been in that very situation, only the who blindly drove thru two lanes of stopped cars hit the one in the opposite traffic lane slamming into me, causing to go sideways and get tboned, then hit someone else from I don’t know where…all ending a 4 car pile up and the best car I ever had totaled and me having to climb out through the sunroof with a major concussion and a dislocated shoulder. one of the cars was smoking and rhey were afraid to take the time to cut me out. ---
**Author:** ![sidhechaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sidhechaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidhechaos)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drivers-that-stop-for-you/656890/51 "2013-05-04T04:16:12Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > At pedestrian crossings without lights, cars are supposed to stop if someone is waiting to cross. They can get a ticket for not doing so. And you’re mad if they do stop? I guess that’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t kind of situation for the cars. by law (at least where I live) in that situation pedestrian legally has right of way, but that (and stopping for school buses) are the two most common missed questions on a drivers test.. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drivers-that-stop-for-you/656890/52 "2013-05-04T12:55:39Z")
On the “blindly merge and get hit by incoming lanes” tip, parts of East Colonial regularly get backed up during rush hour, and one place in particular had so many incidents of cars crossing 3 lanes of backed up traffic where there was a spot only to get hit when they were crossing the fourth, non-backed-up lane (a turning lane) that the government put up a sign with a graphic that showed that the fourth lane did not always stop. (with a red “X” where the collisions often occured.) But I don’t know if they were waved thru. Just that people intentionally gave them a space to pass through. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drivers-that-stop-for-you/656890.md?page=2)