#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%.
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.
@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.
