Seriously. “Stop” means STOP! It means slowly drive up to the corner, apply your brake, and make your vehicle come to a COMPLETE STOP. Then, look both ways and then if, and ONLY IF, there are no cars coming, slowly release the brake and enter the intersection or road.
I am contemplating putting those instructions on every car in my neighborhood. Yesterday I was at a complete stop (fancy that!) at a stop sign waiting for traffic to disappear before I made a left hand turn.
As I was patiently (ahem!) waiting for the cars to pass by me, I watched a car pull up across the intersection from me. And of course, at the same time the car was pulling up, the traffic disappeared and I was good to go to make my left hand turn and so I started.
But, I forgot. We don’t follow traffic rules in my neighborhood. Silly me! I forgot that instead of stopping at the Stop Sign, I should have just slowed down when approaching the intersection, and then closed my eyes, crossed my fingers, and rolled through the stop without stopping or looking. Because of course I am invincible and no car can hurt me. It doesn’t matter if my kids are in the car – Stopping at a Stop Sign just takes too much effort! I mean, that extra 10 seconds of following the law is just below me.
That is exactly what the other car did. She is lucky I was actually paying attention or she would have been t-boned by me. And I don’t have a small car.
Here is an idea. When you see a Stop Sign – STOP! I mean, Stop does mean STOP doesn’t it?
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