3 ms·
No two vehicles ever stop “at the same time” when you get down to it. There's always an offset, and the fuzziness I'm speaking of is how much slop is included t
by obelos 13y ago
No two vehicles ever stop “at the same time” when you get down to it. There's always an offset, and the fuzziness I'm speaking of is how much slop is included to trigger simultaneity. Generally, it's little enough that it gives the appearance of FIFO in practice, but the law specifies positional yielding. I'm speaking in reference to OH and OR law, here. The laws don't say “whomever stopped first gets right of way.” They say something to the effect of, “You must stop at a stop sign. If there is another car to your right at the intersection, you must yield to it.” The relevant phrasing from the Oregon revised statutes is “After stopping, the driver shall yield the right of way to any vehicle in the intersection or approaching so closely as to constitute an immediate hazard during the time when the driver is moving across or within the intersection.”[1] It's actually quite fuzzy. Many laws are, which is part of why we rely on human juries and judges to make sensible decisions about conflicts.
1. ORS 811.260(15) http://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/811.260 http://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/811.260
- mikestew 13y agoThe Oregon law in the link is practically useless for making a determination pertaining to four-way stops (it looks like it might be referring to two-way stops with cross traffic). Whatever, maybe you quoted the wrong statute, I thought to myself, or maybe my not-a-lawyer brain just can't parse it. Let's go to the OR drivers manual! "At any intersection with stop signs in all four directions, it is common courtesy to allow the driver who stops first to go first." Good Gawd, "common courtesy"?! What's wrong with your lawmakers down there? So I stand corrected. Apparently not every state has this clearly defined. (As an example of a state that does clearly define it, first thing I find on Google is Michigan, which matches exactly what I described: http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/05/traffic_talk_what_are_the_rule.html http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/05/traffic_talk_wha...)
- obelos 13y ago“What's wrong with your lawmakers down there?” We also have a significant number of completely uncontrolled intersections in dense, urban neighborhoods. No lights, no signs, nothing other than “please drive slowly with caution.” So it's not just the legislators who are a little lax.