Rolling stops at stop signs.

The BBQ Pit
1

OK, everybody does it. They even call them California stops around here. Do they call it that in other states?

No, I’m not talking about the minor rolling past the line while slowing to minimize the delay so that you can take a peek at oncoming traffic. I’m talking about the full on I’m going to blow through this stop sign/stop light without stopping and I don’t see you coming technique. WTF, you incompetent assholes. There is a point at which you should either stop or be decelerating so that it is obvious that you are not going to cause an accident. I am not some paranoid recluse, I’m just an average observer of human behavior and you assholes are out 5 standard deviations out on how far and fast you roll past the stop sign. You are an incompetent and inconsiderate driver. I’ll bet you drive slow in the fast lane also.

The reason I find these assholes unnerving is that people do quite often just blow through stop lights and stop signs without stopping. There is NO way to know if you are one of these irresponsible jerkwads. The other day, a girl pulls a rolling stop against a red light when I’m crossing on a green light. I swing wide into the oncoming lane (fortunately, there was no oncoming traffic), and she actually did just blow through the red light and pulled into my lane like I wasn’t there. She really DID NOT LOOK. There were no obstructions, just the brain fog.

So fuck you all you people who roll pause as though you are not going to stop. Get a fucking clue you assholes.

2

This drives me nuts too. But around here, it’s not a rolling stop. I’ll be driving down a blacktop on the way to town, watching a car coming up on an intersecting gravel road. They don’t even slow to a roll – they just keep coming. You know they blow the stop sign all the time, and you tense up and slow down and wonder if they’re going to do it again.

And don’t stop and then start rolling forward, because I don’t know if you’ve decided to pull out in front of me or if your braking foot is just tired.

3

I certainly never do it… that’s the one thing that they drilled into our heads at the Austin Driving School. That and “wolfpacking.” It’s also a great way to kill a kid or a pedestrian, or mash up someone’s car. In Texas we also called it a “California stop.”

I was taught that you stop, completely, behind the stop line, and then inch out so you can see. Here in Boston people actually are pretty good at stopping at signs, mainly because there are pedestrians everywhere, and they don’t necessarily look where they’re going. (Case in point: jackass crossing Mass Ave, Cambridge’s busiest thoroughfare, who was looking at his phone and away from the traffic.) I notice that people are less observant when they are in rural areas.

4

A rolling stop got me a, “Don’t drive like your uncle,” during my driving test. And a fail.

5

Yea, my mom always called that a “Hollywood stop” when I was growing up around here. People that do that really piss me off

6

I’m so sick of bad drivers I’ve decided to just plow into them at this point. If they are in the wrong and drive through a stop sign and I have a chance to hit them in their driver side door (hopefully trashing their car and injuring them),. I’m taking it.

All you speeders, rolling “stop” drivers, lane change without a signal, etc. I will no longer avoid you. I don’t care if you have a big green “N” on the back of your car or you’re 50 years old. Learn to drive by the rules or stay the fuck off my road.

7

I hate this. Some people barely slow down as they come to the stop sign and then brake quickly a couple of feet past it if there is a car coming. I don’t know if they just missed the stop sign or are just acting like an asshole. Like a previous poster I will swerve, risking an accident. Fuckwads.

8

Jeez would you guys get the name right? It is a California LOOKOUT stop. The proper way to preform this maneuver is as you roll through the stop sign almost hitting a person about to cross the road, you yell LOOKOUT! to alert them of your presence.
Yelling asshole out the window when they flip you off is optional.

9

I’m right with you on this rant, Darryl. The same thing happened to me a week or so ago - I’m driving along in the right-hand lane, and a car comes up to a stop sign at 90 degrees to me, and just about drives right through it without slowing down or looking, right into the side of me. This also happens at green lights - my light is green, so I’m driving through, and drivers aren’t even slowing down turning right into my lane for their red light.

Let me add the four-way stops to this rant - it’s hard to tell who stopped first and who gets to go first WHEN NOBODY STOPS ANY MORE!!!

The other side of this driving idiocy is that I fully expect to be rear-ended making a right turn on a red light or at a stop sign when I do actually come to my full stop before proceeding. I’ve thought seriously about putting a warning bumper sticker on my car that says, “This car stops for red lights and stop signs.” Idiots.

10

Can I add my hatred for the rolling stop’s cousin: the “don’t bother looking for pedestrians on the sidewalk when coming out of the driveway” move?

This move is especially dangerous when the driver is also talking on the phone.

11

On my way home from work there is a traffic light at the end of the exit ramp off the expressway. Twice in a week, as I was stopped there at the red light before making the right turn, a car blew around me on the left and made the right turn ahead of me. It’s a good thing I was actually stopped, instead of just rolling through.

12

When I was in my 20s, a friend of a friend (aka someone I vaguely knew) was at a three way “T” intersection" the stem of the “T” is a road bordered on both sides by relatively tall buildings. So, while there is a stop light at the intersection, it’s very very difficult to see traffic coming down the road (which has a posted speed limit of 40 and a common speed limit of ~550) unless you very slowly inch your way out.

More often than not, people just rely on the light. Well, this acquaintance did just that, and was t-boned by a large truck going 60 mph, and was pronounced dead on the scene.

Because of that, I’m always very careful at that, and most, intersections regardless of whether or not I have the right of way/green light et cetera. There’s just too many people that ignore traffic signs to blindly put your life in the hands of the stop light.

Also, anytime I’m trying to pull out onto a road, and I see someone coming down the way with their blinker on, I never pull out assuming they are going to actually get off the road at the upcoming street as you might expect, way too many people turn blinkers on 4-5 turn offs before they actually get off the main strip, or just leave their blinkers on obliviously.

13

So, this guy from a northern state is driving to Florida and he pulls off the intersate to get some food in one of the Carolinas. As he looks for the local Waffle House he rolls a stop and before he goes three feet the lights come on and the sirens howl right behind him.

The trooper approaches the car and explaines to the Yankee that he just ran a stop sign. The Yankee protests that he slowed down, and that should be good enough. The trooper explains that a full stop is required by law. The Yankee continues to argue his case, claiming that slowing down should be enough. The more the trooper tries to make his case the louder the Yankeee gets.

Finally, the troopr has enough, reaches in and pulls the guy out of his car through the window and begins to explain the situation with his nightstick. He beats him as the guy yells “Stop, stop.”

The trooper bends over and whispers in his ear, "Do you want me to come to a complete stop or just slow down?’

14

Really? When I first moved to SoCal it took me quite some time to get used to the fact that if I pulled up behind someone stopped at a stop sign it’d be a good 4-5 seconds before they started moving. I used to joke with friends from back home that it must be the burnt-out hippie streak that runs through the city – STOP, take stock of your life man, I mean what does it all mean.

15

This is something that pisses me off, and this is also my minor hijack for the day.

I live in a nice residential neighborhood. There aren’t a lot of kids, and our streets are too narrow to get more than one car down them at a time (due to cars parked on both sides - a problem in our city because it often involves backing down a street or pulling over to let the other guy through instead of regular traffic flow)

There is a stop sign at the end of my street. It is usually obeyed. The road it connects to is busy and has no stop sign. There is another stop sign two blocks down (between my house and the University). This one is not obeyed as much. I have watched people run it - young and old, cars full of teens or mothers with a child in the back seat - no one seemed to care. I also witnessed police cars run it (not rolling stop, but no slow at all) on many occasions.

I hate that stop sign because I always feel like I am going to be slammed by any car since not many stop at it.

Recently, our neighbor walked around with a petition and a little slip of paper for each house. It mentioned that his kids often play in our neighborhood, as he lives down the street, and he notices that a lot of cars speed severely (no one else I have talked to notices this, but when there is less than 3" on either side of the usable lane of traffic, 20 can seem fast…) and he feels his children are at risk. After writing letters to police, sheriff deputies, and other authorities, he found out that not a lot was happening to help his cause. Then he started this petition. He feels that “it is vital to the safety of all who live in the community that we put a stop sign at the crossroad” that is halfway between the others.

Why? The street going across ours is so torn up that you have to stop, plus there is already a stop sign for the 2 way traffic crossing, why stop our street as well. Obviously, because it will stop anyone from speeding since they have to stop at the stop sign no matter what! If police run the sign a block away, how would a new one be treated? One can only imagine.

So fuck you Eric, and your petition, and the fact that you walk around our neighborhood every fucking weekend and post these “little notes” about your mission to cause there to be a stop sign on every corner so your kids have a better chance of getting out of the street if there is a car coming. I understand protecting your kids, but maybe you shouldn’t allow them near the street - the little one can’t be older than 5…

Also, you are a fuck-ass. What makes you think you have the right to walk around and post the home phone numbers of any person on city council, city traffic commission, or police department. If you want us to say something to these people, I’m sure asking us to go to a town meeting, or write a letter, would suffice, but you want us to call them at home so that they might get fed up and give in to you? That seems low. Fuck-ass…

Sorry for being so off topic, Darryl Lict, but stop signs were involved and I just wanted to rant. Carry on…

Brendon Small

16

But when I stop the car jerks and it makes it hard to dial my cell phone.

17

It’s bizarre here… there’s one T intersection here that more people roll through than anywhere else I’ve seen. (Scott & Duboce, on the north edge of CPMC Davies, for you San Franciscans.) I use my horn on that corner more than anywhere else.

18

Same here. Many many moons ago, when I’d only had my license for a year, I was waiting to make a left turn out of a parking lot. The only car coming toward me had his blinker on, so I assumed he was going to pull in before reaching me. I roll out, and suddenly he’s swerving around me, blasting past my bumper. Ever since then, I don’t budge until I see the car actually begin to turn.

19

I have heard it to be California Roll - like the sushi. After all, you don’t actually stop, you keep rolling.

We moved from SoCal to the land of the pedestrian town centers with crosswalks every ten feet where actual ambulatory humans have the right of way. I’m not complaining, I much prefer it, but it took a little while to get used to - and we only lived in CA for a few years.

I’m pretty sure we’re still allowed to hit bicyclists, though.

20

That actually got me into trouble in my one little fender bender I’ve had - as an experienced driver, I was going by what a car’s doing, not what it’s signalling. When a driver signalled she was turning left in front of me, and started turning right, I assumed she was parking and went around her to the left. She then made her very wide left turn (from the parking lane and across the driving lane) into my rear quarter panel. The lesson I learned from that is go by what the car is doing AND signalling, and expect the unexpected and stay well away from erratic drivers (she was driving erratically before that, too - I really should have stayed well clear of her).