Anyone ever notice those broad white lines?

lawyers

nonetheless, they must be talking about a different scenario then i am

 

okay, i'm talking about the same thing in certain circumstances, not in any circumstance.

same as i would not sit at a red light at 3am with no traffic on the road.

it's all about good decisions.

 

The error rate is far higher with rolling 'stops' than with full stops.

 

I did it at 3 pm in front of a hundred witnesses ...

... when a fire truck came up from behind to find all lanes through the intersection blocked by traffic waiting for a stuck traffic light. The incident was just beyond the intersection, where the traffic-signal-override-strobe of a prior first responder had unintentionally locked down the traffic signal so that three directions were stuck with indefinitely long red lights, effectively freezing those directions and building up lots of parked vehicles. A center barricade prevented the usual emergency vehicle cross-over-the-centerline maneuver, and even the shoulder was blocked.

So several of us needed to run the red light to open up a path for the fire truck. So I did. Though watching in the rear view mirror afterwards as the truck issued many more horn blasts, the other vehicles that had been stopped behind or next to me weren't catching on very quickly. I was about four blocks down the road before seeing the fire truck finally squeezed through between other vehicles. All of them appeared to have very awkwardly pulled aside, none took the much faster route of following me out the front of the blockade.

 

Well, I would say, that's solicitation advertising for a Law Firm that probably knows that if you go into court defending an injured pedestrian, that was injured due to the negligence of a driver, guilty of a rolling stop,-they are mostly likely going to win.
That doesn't make the information they are presenting wrong, or invalid. But they do have a really strong ulterior motive for presenting it. It's not JUST a public service announcement, for the good of the community, it's also advertising for a law firm.

Really how arguable is it?
Yes, as drivers, we should ALWAYS stop at intersections, preferably before those big broad white lines. They don't paint those on the streets because they have a surplus of big brushes and white paint. They are there because stopping at intersections, with plenty of room to see and be seen by other cars and pedestrians is always a good idea.
I've never approached an intersection and seen a sign that said....this intersection is rolling stop approved.

So as either a driver or a pedestrian, my goal is to NOT need a lawyer.

 

One particular year (2000) stood out to me for having four events in six months where we properly stopped for changing lights, while the vehicle immediately behind us in our own lane still went through, screw the damn light. Just blare the horn, swerve around and gun it, never mind that the light was already red before any of them reached it.

At least none of them hit us in the process. And fwiw, none were motorcycles either, at least in that series.

 

Depends on what you interpret as valid, and it depends on why I am doing it... ...or not doing it. The purpose for stopping is to look for crossing/turning traffic or pedestrians... ...or trains. The DMV regulations assumes that a driver can only do one thing at a time. If you are in the habit of doing it all the time, then yes, you risk causing an accident and you will get a ticket if you are ever caught. However, if you only do it when you have a clear view of traffic and are anticipating that you may have to come to a full stop if necessary, then I don't see anything wrong with it (other than getting a ticket, that is). Hint: don't ever try it at an intersection with an active/triggered camera - you WILL get caught - no "if"s "and"s or "but"s.

You can increase MPG when approaching a red light this way. By not coming to a complete stop (hoping that the light will turn green before you get there) you are conserving kinetic energy that would otherwise be dissipated as heat (by the brakes). The nice thing about stoplights is that, as long as the light turns green, it is perfectly legal! It's when you start doing it at stop signs and right-on-red turns (or when the light DOESN'T turn green, for that matter) that you can get in trouble.

In racing (athletics) it is called a rolling start, not a rolling stop. When the referee says "take your mark" (or whatever they say these days) you can get a substantial advantage over the competition by slowly approaching the set position without stopping before the ref fires the gun (or whatever they use for a starting gun these days)... ...Unfortunately, you will also be disqualified. The idea is the same tho, except that, in athletics, it's done more to reduce reflex time than it is to conserve kinetic energy.

 

Yeah, but you never do that on a speed ramp... ...You HAVE be able to do more than one thing at a time in order to merge with traffic. If you do "one Mississippi" there, you could cause a pile up behind you on the ramp.

 

When it comes to stop lights, the only time that I have deliberately run a red light was when it was snowing and the roads were slick. I was driving my old gen 2 Prius at the time, and a light I was approaching had turned yellow. It was obvious I was going to have to stop. Instinctively, I looked in my rear view mirror, to see if anyone was behind me, and saw an SUV, fast approaching, who's driver obviously didn't know how to drive in snow. Instead of stopping, I coasted through the red light, and to my amusement, I saw the SUV momentarily lose control in the attempt to stop, and watched him (or her) drift sideways through the intersection. There was no one else around, so nobody got hurt and nobody got caught.

Other than this, I sometimes follow the rule "When it's green - go fast. When it's yellow - go faster." However, you really can't call that "deliberate", because when you do this, you always hope that the light won't turn red by the time you get through the intersection (or at least that what I told the officer).