If you're gonna run a stop sign, at least look...

[OakLeaf]

I was doing a charity ride in Southern CT and there happened to be a stop sign at the top of a hill with blind spots on the right and left. Sucks but yeah you get to the top and you stop.

Well some a-hole behind me yells "You don't stop at the top of a hill!"

I yelled back "You stop if you don't want to get your a$$ run over!"

It really just gets me so mad that people don't have enough respect for themselves, other riders or drivers to follow the rules of the road. It's for YOUR OWN SAFETY. And yet it's people like me who get hit by cars?! Oh the irony......

Without knowing the hill in question, sometimes this is a real dilemma. I almost ALWAYS stop, but I came close to being flattened last year when I came to a stop sign at the top of a steep hill in the rain, with no flat spot to stop at the crossing. It was either keep going and risk the cars - which as it turned out there was one - or slip down the hill, possibly get injured in the fall, and even if I was fine, have to do it all over again and make the same decision again. There was no way I was going to stay upright if I tried to put a foot down.

There are some places where you have to blame the traffic engineers and just make the best decision you can under the circumstances, which sometimes turns out to be drastically wrong. I was just lucky.

[RolliePollie]

I kinda feel like I need to qualify my remark about not minding that the cyclists ran the stop sign.

I think whether or not you stop at a stop sign really depends on the circumstances. If there is a cop sitting there, then of course. If you're riding in town or in a city and there's traffic, then stop and take your turn like a car. But where I ride it's very rural and there is very little traffic. There are no bike lanes, pretty much no shoulders, and it's one or two lane roads. At some intersections, you might see one car per hour. The stop sign these cyclists blew through is one that I pretty much never stop at myself. But I do look both ways and I yield to traffic, so I am still annoyed with them for almost blindly crashing into me!

I wish CA would pass a "yield to stop" law to give cyclists a little more flexibility. I am really good at yielding to stop

[smilingcat]

Stop always and make it a habit. It's easier to keep yourself from accidently running a stop sign when you get distracted.

Uphill, downhill, middle of no where stop sign, treat it the same come to a complete stop. I can be a party pooper at times.

[malkin]

Yesterday in Salt Lake City, a cyclist (reported to be wearing earphones) ran a light and was hit by a light rail train.

Life is too high a price to pay for music on a ride.