In America, there seemingly is an endless procession of stop signs, of which, for virtually any trip that a driver makes, they will encounter one of those ubiquitous stop signs and the law states, that at a stop sign, the vehicle needs to come to a full and complete stop which is defined as being no forward momentum at the designated stop sign marker, and to proceed only when they have ascertained that there is no oncoming traffic or pedestrians that have the right of way over them. One might think, since everyone has taken a driver’s test, that everyone would not only know what the law is regarding what is appropriate for a driver to do at a stop sign but that the general public would unquestionably obey it, pretty much every time.
Not too surprisingly, to ascertain whether or not drivers are consistently coming to a full stop at just about any stop sign, that isn’t incredibly busy, we discover that a significant percentage of drivers, do not come to a full and complete stop. Rather, they come to a rolling stop, of which, when they see that there are no pedestrians or cross traffic, they proceed along their way – and if they do see a pedestrian or cross traffic, they will almost always stop, but typically not behind the designated stop sign marker.
Look, it has to be said, that when people are driving they don’t like having to come to a complete stop, mainly because that keeps them from making progress to their intended destination, and knowing that a full stop is equivalent to making no progress, they find it to be a bit irritating. Indeed, in a lot of cases at a significant amount of stop signs, there isn’t any cross traffic and there aren’t any pedestrians, of which, when traveling at five miles per house or less, the field of vision for the driver is adequate to take in this information, which is why many a person, does not come to a full and complete stop, but rather makes a rolling stop, which is defined as slowing down when approaching the stop sign, but never completely stopping the vehicle’s forward motion.
The fact of the matter is that violating the stop sign rule and thereby when ticketed by a police officer, for such, will mean that the driver has to pay a monetary fine and will also suffer the penalty of a point or more being added onto their driving record, which could mean a higher car insurance rate. Yet, a rolling stop, in which, nobody was endangered, whatsoever, but the driver is ticketed, just seems unfair. Not only that, but any police officer, strategically placed where the officer’s view of the stop sign is unobstructed, could issue ticket after ticket after ticket for rolling stop sign violations because it happens so frequently. This would presuppose that there should be more flexibility in the law, about what constitutes a legal stop, especially in those intersections in which there hasn’t been an accident in years, which would better reflect that a rolling stop is not nearly as dangerous as the busybodies might so imagine or fear.