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My commute in SV is entirely surface streets (by design). Since moving here I have observed what I call the "California stop": at a red light, drivers will stop
by jldugger 8y ago
My commute in SV is entirely surface streets (by design). Since moving here I have observed what I call the "California stop": at a red light, drivers will stop 2-3 car lengths behind the next driver. Enough that a clever smart car driver could comfortably pull into the space.
Every time I see it, the driver is looking down at what I assume is a phone. They are so eager to get back to their phone they stop the car early.
- lotsofpulp 8y agoThat’s everywhere I go, coast to coast.
- pbhjpbhj 8y agoAre you sure it's not that they leave a large margin because they're already paying attention to the phone whilst driving?
- jblow 8y ago“California stop” is already a reserved term that means something else (slowing down mostly, but not all the way, at a stop sign).
- sokoloff 8y agoWe always called that a "California roll", though if someone said "California stop" to me, I'd assume it was the same thing.
- SilasX 8y agoSorry if too OT, but I'm reminded of AWS's infuriating convention of using "on-demand" and "spot" instances to mean very different things.
- brogrammer5 8y agoI've also heard that called a "Hollywood stop".
- opportune 8y agoBasically every single part of the US has a term for this as if people only do it there
- loeg 8y agoI'm in Washington — we call it a California stop too, for whatever reason.[1] A particular counterexample is the Idaho stop.[2] [1]: https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/10/was-california-stop-really-invented-california/ https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/10/was-californi... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_stop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_stop
- amanaplanacanal 8y ago> I'm in Washington — we call it a California stop too, for whatever reason. Same in Oregon. I'm guessing it has something to do with intersections controlled by "yield" signs in California, which we don't see many of here.
- jerrysievert 8y agoheads up - a "California stop" is a driver rolling through a stop sign or red light. this is much different than an "Idaho stop", which is due to bicyclists in Idaho being allowed to treat stop signs as yield signs, and red lights as stop signs (now legal in Delaware as well). not sure what the common nomenclature of what you described is though.
- spiznnx 8y ago>red lights as stop signs I'm so glad that this is legal at least somewhere. I hate sitting at a red for minutes with a full view of a clear intersection.
- viburnum 8y agoMy guess is that distracted people just mirror what the person in front of them is doing. Like when you’re trying to change lanes and the person next to keeps matching your pace so you can’t get over either behind or in front of them.