Shades of Stop
I'm not sure if law enforcement officers recognize shades of stopping, but for me it is useful to distinguish between various levels of courteousness at traffic signals and stop signs. I'm interested to know where your riding fits on this scale from most polite to most rude. (Different behavior on different rides is expected.)
These are graded on a courteous scale from most polite to most rude:
10 - Complete stop, foot on the ground, drinking out of a water bottle. Performed when you're trying to get a motorist with the right of way to go through the intersection. Particularly useful when they are on the cell phone.
9 - Stopped for a red light, but the light doesn't detect the bicycle, no cars to trip the detector. Wait through a cycle of the lights and then proceed through red as if it were a stop sign.
8 - Stopped for a red light, but the light doesn't detect the bicycle, no cars to trip the detector. Wait only until traffic clears and then proceed through red as if it were a stop sign.
7 - Near stop, still clipped in. This is the conservative interpretation of a neighborhood stop sign or a right on red light as a yield.
6 - Come to a near stop, and then run a red light. Another interpretation of a signal as a yield sign.
5 - Slowing, then rolling through a stop sign. Slowed enough to make sure no traffic whose right of way would be challenged, preparing to brake to a full stop, but continuing to conserve momentum. This is the aggressive interpretation of a neighborhood stop sign as a yield sign.
4 - While someone is blocking traffic, profusely thank waiting motorists for allowing you to run through the red light/stop sign.
3 - Blow through a red light/stop sign with the benefit of someone clearly blocking traffic (as in corking).
2 - Blow through a red light/stop sign without slowing and thus surprising motorists and pedestrians.
1 - Blow through a red light/stop sign and nearly colliding with traffic that has the right of way.
Are there other grades on this scale? Other behavior I've missed?
Commute Summary
Round Trip Distance: 18.7
Number of Cyclists seen: 34 (8 inbound, 26 outbound)
In-bound Route: Goofin' 9.6
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton
Weather: Favorite temps in AM: So cool that it takes a hill or two to warm up when wearing shorts and single layer short-sleeves (about 55 degrees).
Labels: confrontation, courteous
posted by Jett @ 10:43 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Hey Jett, the only additional "stop" I would suggest is the "Sunday morning, and there really isn't much traffic at this intersection during the busiest day, so a quick glance (and no real slowing) should confirm safety, excepting any Avondale sign" -stop.
Or, perhaps the "Just because we went right through the neighborhood stop signs doesn't mean we should drop our guard at usually-busy intersections, so we should actually stop for those" -stop
My while-I'm-commuting-around-town practice, though, contains your list of five through eight. The busy-street red lights find me waiting with the cars, mostly.
All this ties in to some recent musing I've done about the "efficiency" of getting where I'm going on the bike. I notice how, over time, I've collected all sorts of rationalizations for never actually stopping my bike and waiting just like cars do. I have gone so far as to structure my work commute so I rarely have to make the decision about waiting in the line of cars--I'm naturally so impatient that my snap decisions can't be trusted.
This last idea got me to thinking about how, as we bike so much, we underestimate the dangers we encounter. Just like cell-phone-talking drivers, we exchange extreme familiarity for the laws of physics. One silly decision to bunnyhop onto a sidewalk or nose out into a red-light intersection could really end up bad. And there's no "efficiency" worth gaining for that cost.
Oh, and I’d like to send one of your pictures of your Raleigh to the bike shop owner who put it together, if you don’t mind.
Ride safe,
Barry
I try hard to follow the rules. I figure that does three things for me:
1. Keeps me safe (as much as possible).
2. Creates good will with drivers.
3. Saves me from getting a ticket.
Hmmmmmm... those apply to driving as well :-)
I stick in the upper numbers, mostly. Most of my time on the road is on short trips, close to home.
Not only do I need to stay safe, I need to not set a horrible example in front of my children and their friends. (I tend to run into people I know. Figuratively speaking, of course.)
No, Barry, I don't mind at all grabbing a photo and sharing with the bike shop owner.
Thanks for adding to the discussion.
For our non-local readers, the township of Avondale aggressively educates cyclists about running stop signs. You will get pulled over.
Another question I have: as a motorist, at what point does the cyclist cross the line and get you aggravated? How about as a cyclist watching other cyclists?
Hi Jett,
I think there's a missing stop between 10 and 9. 10a: At 4-way stop, come to a complete stop, foot on ground, wait for approaching car to stop, go immediately. This would be the ideal typical behavior at a 4-way stop.
A fellow cyclist reminded me of another style of stopping:
At a 4-way stop, follow the car in front of you instead of waiting for a separate turn.
Hard for me to rank because in some ways it's rude and in some ways it's being polite. Rude in that you're not waiting your own turn, polite in that you don't make people wait more than necessary.
It has the added bonus for the cyclist that the car they're following is running interference through the intersection.
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