[ale] [OT] Cars and licensing... (Was: Re: Well, this does nothing for the reputation of Linux)

[Sparr]

On Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 6:16 PM, Michael B. Trausch <mbt at naunetcorp.com>wrote:

>  On 07/22/2013 04:54 PM, Sparr wrote:
>
>  In either event, the first violator of the protocol is the one who is
>> cited, sometimes with others if there is a complex chain resulting.  If
>> people are stopping at a blinking yellow, then they have violated the
>> protocol.  The result of the protocol violation is going to be a
>> collision—it could be a rear-end (possibly chain) collision, or a collision
>> indirectly caused by the violator by falsely giving everyone else the
>> impression that it's a four-way stop and then they don't check for
>> themselves
>>
>
>  Unfortunately, this is not how the situation is enforced, and thus not
> how people are practically required to handle it. If I stop at a flashing
> red and see you stop, without knowing your signal,
>
>
> If you do not know my signal, then you did not take the 2-3 seconds at
> your blinking red to assess the situation.  This would be your first error
> in handling the situation...
>

Hypothetical-you stops at the flashing yellow for 1-5 seconds (randomly
selected to be most confusing to me). No amount of time I spend looking at
you will accurately inform me of your view or intentions.


>
>  There is no course of action that I can take to satisfy the law and its
> implementation.
>
>
> Sure there is: assess the situation when you arrive at your stop sign
> (flashing red)!  You have a stop sign.  It is as simple as that.  You take
> a couple of seconds, and you discover (a) the state of the intersection,
> (b) the state of the lights, and (c) the state of the other vehicles
> around.  If you don't do all three before proceeding through the
> intersection, well—hey, your car, your life!
>

As I've stated above and before, no matter how long I wait, I cannot
accurately discover the state of the intersection or any lights that I
cannot see.

PS: Another excellent spin-off of this situation... where I live (Boston)
there are some intersections where *oncoming* traffic has a red light while
I have a green light (not a green arrow) and I want to turn left. Stopping
before I turn left is a bad decision; it gets me rear ended and/or cited
and/or slows down traffic. NOT stopping is dangerous because MAYBE the
oncoming traffic's light just changed from red to green, or maybe it was
green the whole time and they just weren't paying attention.
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