#StopSigns:
This weekend I used a video camera and a single line of code to capture short video clips of every car that ran the stop sign in front of my house.
We live on a very low-volume street; ~12 cars/hour on the weekend.
In eight hours of footage, my setup detected 79 stop sign runners. That's almost 10 per hour. 83%.
Many of the most egregious stop-sign runners are usual suspects -- the silver accord, the black tesla, the old-school 4-runner, the little old lady who delivers meals on wheels. Every now and then we'll get a #lyft or #uber driver scorching it. Yesterday we also got a pickup truck from our local water authority that didn't even tap the brakes.
A lot of them are neighbors, but certainly not all.
I'm not going to post the video publicly, because I realized that--aside from a few really bad apples--most of the drivers are simply doing what they've been conditioned to do. What their environment tells them to do. What our car-brained culture has lulled us into thinking is safe, despite the 40,000+ deaths on our roadways demonstrates is clearly very much not safe.
We have designed an intersection, a road, a neighborhood, a world, in which people in cars are conditioned to not notice anything around them. Even if what's around them is their neighbors...or their neighbors' kids.
Yeah, I'm upset at my neighbors for putting my kid's life in danger.
But I'm pissed at the system that allows them to do it SO DAMN EASILY.
We know how to design better streets. We just choose not to do it.
#SafeStreetsForAll #VisionZero #Motornormativity #CarCulture
The thing I'm struggling with is how do we redesign these systems. We know what they can/should look like, but how do we get there? If you showed this video to your town council, would it have any effect? Probably not.
How do we get people to willingly pay more (in taxes to redesign roads and time to slow down) for better, safer systems?
@DrTCombs This has astonished me time and time again. Lots of drivers are not stopping at stop signs, but almost none are doing anything to change it, like to replace a stop with a yield where appropriate. I think that speaks volumes as to what people think of the rules we as society give us in general, and how much more this seems to be the case for drivers and cars specifically.
@DrTCombs what's the letter-of-the-law versus practice in your area?
I grew up in and around NYC; practice here seems to be that slowing to 2-3 mph is close enough to a real stop. (So long as there's no need to yield or negotiate right-of-way, etc.) I'll admit that seeing a slow roll doesn't bend me out of shape. Blowing stops, totally different of course.
I'm open to being convinced road safety is enhanced by full and complete stops vs very-slow-roll-throughs, though!
@hillernyc legally, NC requires full stops for all. I suspect enforcement norms vary wildly across the state though. Generally, a pause seems to be sufficient in #ChapelHillNC, regardless of mode. Our PD has been working to educate itself on bike safety and my sense is that most officers would endorce a well-executed Idaho Stop. Outside the town though, it's likely a very different situation and obv depends heavily on skin color as well as transport mode.
@hillernyc I tend to agree with you re slow rolls by drivers. I tend not to be bent out of shape. That said, absent any other form of traffic calming or safety countermeasures, the only way to be 100% sure you're not going to roll over a kid is to come to a full stop and take the time to check your surroundings comppletely.
But we all know that's an unrealistic ask, which is why it's ridiculous to think a dinky little stop sign on a 36' wide drag-strip of a street is going to make us safer.
@DrTCombs In a recent conversation, a non-cycling friend said to me "several weeks ago I saw a bicyclist run a stop sign and it made me angry." Yet I see multiple motor vehicle drivers run stop signs every day. And the damage that can be done by a bicycle versus a motor vehicle isn't even comparable. So why are cyclist violations so memorable but motor vehicle violations are not? #motornormativity
@MartyCormack This is such a frustrating situation!
Bicyclists are small, pose very little danger to others, have exceptional awareness of their surroundings, and are demonstrably less at risk when they roll through stop signs.
Cars are big, heavy, fast, and impose deadly force on others. Drivers have very limited awareness of their surroundings, and are protected on all sides from conflict at intersections by roll cages & airbags....
@MartyCormack ...yet, as you point out, it's the people on bikes who inspire rage--often deadly rage--when they roll through a stop.
WHY?
So much of it is how we, culturally, have been trained to view people in cars as "doing important things that need doing" and people on bikes as "just goofing off and getting in the way of traffic."
IDK how to fix it.
Have you considered contacting the police and have them set up a patrol there to enforce speed and stop laws? Probably more effective if you and several neighbors make similar requests.
What else might affect change in behavior?
@MarkBrigham Our PD does safety enforcement actions frequently, but as they've pointed out, they can't be everywhere all the time, and we're all better off that way.
What I really want is a safer intersection design that forces better behavior.
The number of red light runners seems to have increased exponentially since the pandemic. Since some of the worst intersections have 3 traffic lights, it has to be distraction causing it. Some smaller intersections have stop signs with flashing light halos. How do you not see that?
@VHasch I don't think it's an issue of not seeing. I think it's an issue of not thinking it matters.
No amount of flashing lights will make people realize that they are engaging in anti-social behavior.
The 'runs' ranged from slow rolls to blast-throughs. Most drivers slowed somewhat, appeared to give a cursory glance to their surroundings, and then accelerated on through. Sometimes those cursory glances involved noticing pedestrians present, sometimes not.
Our street is wide & straight, with no sidewalks. On one end is a playground; the other end has a large youth soccer practice area.
There are tons of kids & families that live on & travel up & down the street.