“In a car, its fine. It doesnt cost you much. On a bike, it scrubs off speed that took a lot of energy to achieve and to re-achieve. If there was a real reason to stop, that would be different. But for a stop sign where there is OBVIOUSLY nothing to actually stop for, other than the sign, the only logical reason for stopping is that there is a cop around.”
The problem is that when people think like this they just get in the habit of rolling through stop signs without even bothering to really look. Then they start rolling through red lights too when they think “it’s clear”. Next thing you know they splatter themselves or somebody else. I can’t count how many times as a pedestrian I was almost run over by bicyclists blazing through stop signs without even bothering to look for someone about to cross the street in front of them, because it was a “quiet area” and they were more worried about losing speed than being safe.
You think that’s bad, then I wouldn’t recommend ever visiting Amsterdam.
“The problem is that when people think like this they just get in the habit of rolling through stop signs without even bothering to really look.”
There was a tragic crash in Canada last week where 16 people died, most of them kids on the Humboldt Broncos hockey team (16 to 21 year old, Junior Team) The remaining 8 were all injured - one paralyzed from his chest down. (A town of 6,000 - where the hockey team is their pride and joy).
Late at night, where two “highways” intersect, a double-trailer tractor carrying a heavy load T-boned them. They haven’t released any other information - but it wouldn’t be difficult to believe that truck just blew past the stop sign on that usually lonely road. (Those big rigs also have a lot of gears to work through as they have to come back up to speed from their stop.) Perhaps it was a four-way stop, and the Charter Bus also failed to stop??
The problem is that when people think like this they just get in the habit of rolling through stop signs without even bothering to really look.
That’s with my car. With my bike it’s even more important, for obvious reasons.