Stopping on or near the stop line

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Where I live, in the midwest, about 40% of drivers I observe, stop anywhere from a whole car length or more before the stop line. If you aren’t aware, the stop line is the wide white stripe that runs across the street, normally just before the cross walk, as shown in the picture below.

If you are one of these people, why do you stop so far before the stop line? This doesn’t infuriate me to road rage, but it happens frequently enough where I live, it makes me wonder if this is the method being taught in driver’s ed around here. I did not grow up here.

2

There are a few intersections near me that are poorly designed. If you stop right at the line you cannot see the light. One possible explanation…

3

It’s a good tactic if you see a truck with a long trailer attempting to make a turn at the intersection.

4

My wife got pulled over a few weeks ago. The cop said the front bumper of her car didn’t line up with the white line when she stopped at a stop sign.

I’m guessing it was a pretextual traffic stop. The good news is that he gave her a warning and not a ticket.

As for why she didn’t stop at the line? I don’t know. I always try my best to do it.

5

The nearest intersection with a light to my house got horribly redesigned so you need to stop well before the line so cars turning left from the cross street can make it around you without further jamming up this messed up intersection or clipping the front end of your car.

I have seen a lot more of this in the past quarter century or so that I attribute to the use of cell phone use. Drivers start playing with their toys at the earliest opportunity and stopping far short of the line so they can creep up to it without paying much attention, avoid cross traffic, and then miss the light changing and sit there until someone honks.

6

I have run across quite a few intersections over the decades where the sight lines are crap if you stop right before the thick white line. “So I could see past the tall hedgerow blocking my view of the other lanes, officer?”

There’s another reason to do so-pavement sensors. We had them all over the place in Florida, and quite often someone would be too far back to trigger the thing, and I’d be forced to get out and go up, knock politely on their window, and tell them they need to move up to the line to trigger the sensor. Noticed in Ohio however that almost all lights are still on old-fashioned timers, to my surprise.

7

A neighbor’s girlfriend took the license exam and test later in life, as in not a teen. She said they told her when you stop you should be able to see the line at the end of your hood. If others were to follow that advice it would mean everybody stopping at different points since length of hood and driver position would make so many variables. Seems like a weird thing to teach someone.

8

The cross road on my street is at a high angle. They made no attempt to allow for this when they painted the stop line. To begin with the stop line is much further back then it needs to be so the stop line in the right lane is almost three car lengths back from the ideal location. If you want to turn right you need to pull waaaaay ahead of the stop line to be able to see to the left for oncoming traffic. They could have painted the line at an angle to match the cross road or stair-stepped the stop line but I have never seen things like that done.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Stearns+Rd,+Ohio/@41.4070057,-81.9433496,52m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x8830941a6a8d8d3b:0x7a7c06ce513baa80!8m2!3d41.3923183!4d-81.9441216!16s%2Fg%2F1tj33sdr?entry=ttu

9

And these people can possibly drive me to road rage! :slight_smile:

10

Could it be just because the OP lives in the midwest? People there are almost legendarily politer, more courteous, and slower moving than people in, say, New York. Moving to or over the line probably correlates with zooming off the second the light changes., potentially putting pedestrians in danger. Staying far away from crosswalks and stop lines could be part of a larger culture of consideration for others.

Although some might dismiss this as simply a false stereotype, I disagree. I live in western New York and we declare that the Midwest starts here. For example, I go weeks, even months, without hearing anyone honk a car horn. The pace is unquestionably slower. And I rarely see cars push as close as legally possible to the lines.

11

In Urbana, Ohio (10 miles east of me), there is a traffic light with two stop lines. There is a “no stopping” zone between the two stop lines.

12

Frankly, I think a lot of people assume that the front of their car ends at the point that they can see over the hood. This isn’t a problem in parking spaces since there are other features to compare against. But when there’s nothing in front to compare to, drivers default to the “safe” assumption, which leaves a ton of room.

It doesn’t bother me in isolation, but when there is a lot of traffic, cars can block the left-turn lane when they aren’t compacted. Well, they can no matter what, but it’s super annoying when I miss a left-turn cycle because the lane is blocked, and I can see that I’d have easily made it if they weren’t so spaced out. It’s the exact opposite of politeness.

13

Around here, when people stop they are not only over the line, they’re halfway into the crosswalk!

14

There are a fair number of signalized intersections around where I live where the lesser-priority direction is activated by a sensor loop in the pavement, all of which are near the stop line.

The cars that stop two car lengths back from the line never trip the sensor. Cars line up behind the offender at the head of the line and the light just won’t change. Nor will the lead car pull forward at all.

Moderately infuriating. Know how to interact with your environment, people!

15

No, I don’t get it. I don’t overcross the line into the crosswalk, but I also don’t give a good goddamn about some inept hooligan who is unable to make a turn in front of me while maintaining his or or her line. Fuck those people. No, I don’t especially want to get struck by some idiot, far from it, but on principle, I’m not going to live my life trying to make things easy for some incompetent asshole illegally failing to maintain his or her lane, especially as it inconveniences me, people behind me, and the rules of the road.

But, in a rare charitable moment, I’d be willing to concede that those “drivers” are simply too stupid or inexperienced to know the dimensions of their own vehicle, as suggested above.

Driving. The new child care for inexperienced “adults.” Fuck 'em. I ain’t their daddy and I ain’t their boyfriend. They ain’t getting shit from me except I’ll never tailgate, never fail to signal a lane change, and never fail to yield in a merging lane. And, yo. Lights on for safety, dipshits.

(Excuse my language…but somehow it seemed appropriate).

Little known fact, apparently! One can actually see those sensors! Right there on the ground! Amazing facts! :rofl:

Yeah, it does depend on the specific intersection, but I’ve gone most of my life assuming people understood this.

Perhaps this is not the case!

Uhhhhhh…driving…with cars…and, uh…“people,” I guess they can be called. Every damned day I see the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen on the roads.

Ugh.

16

How over the line was she?

This kind of traffic stop is maddening. Unless she was way out of where she should have been (like well into the intersection) this makes no sense to me (I believe it happened, I just cannot make sense of the cop’s reasoning beyond being bored).

As to the OP…how does a few feet before the line make any difference?

17

Well, if one is in a protected turning lane, failure to stop appropriately limits the amount of vehicles that can also enter that lane.

A few feet, meh, if there is a sensor, may not make a difference given the mass of the vehicle.

Personally I think it’s just sloppy and careless, and perhaps encourages child drivers (of all ages!) to mimic such behavior, perhaps at times when it may make a difference.

Agreed. Just some bored rookie looking to make a “bust” and probably waste some time at the typewriter later in his or her shift.

18

Waves from 8 posts earlier.

19

Not sure. But when he got out of the car he told her, “This is not 'Nam. This is driving. There are rules.”

20

I think this may be the cause, and I was under the assumption that the reason for it is, if you are rear-ended you will have a buffer space to mitigate the chance of being pushed into the intersection.

Now, with several (annoyed?) cars behind you a rear-ender is not going to push you anywhere of course. So let’s just say it is kinda dumb.