07-09-2019, 03:15 PM
(07-09-2019, 10:53 AM)jeffster Wrote: It's the attitude that it doesn't matter if anyone isn't around.
Except that it doesn’t matter if no-one is around.
I mean, that is just a fact. The purpose of the stop sign is to help different drivers and pedestrians co-exist. If there was only one person using the road, there would not need to be any traffic control devices of any kind. When only one vehicle/pedestrian is anywhere near the intersection, it doesn’t matter.
The problem arises when people get in the habit of just rolling through everything and not really properly checking. It’s the properly checking which matters. I would say that an over-emphasis on “coming to a complete stop” is actually a negative; it’s perfectly possible to screech to a stop, then take off at high speed without properly checking for other traffic.
This is one of several reasons why I consider “timed stop” rules to be complete nonsense. They’re nothing more than a way of making it crystal clear that the police are allowed to ticket perfectly safe behaviour. Fortunately that particular little bit of authoritarianism is not in Ontario’s traffic rules.