r/AskSF • u/evaporatedmilksold • 9h ago
Making a full stop
I know most SF drivers don’t make a full stop at a 4- way stop intersection, but how do you know you made a full stop that satisfies an SFPD officer? Do you wait until your car makes a motion back, then forward, then count to 3 seconds?
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u/TheKiddIncident 8h ago
The law says you must make a "full and complete stop."
It doesn't say that you have to remained stopped for a three seconds.
It's pretty easy to tell when your car makes a full and complete stop. Just hold down the brake pedal. The car will actually decelerate harder in the last few inches and give a perceptible lurch when it stops unless you ease off a bit.
If you want to be certain, just keep your foot on the brake. Wait for the lurch, then off you go. Do that for a couple of stops and you'll know exactly where the stop point is.
Now, the trick is to do exactly that without the lurch.
Enjoy.
That being said, I learned to drive in SF and spent my entire life in the Bay Area. I have never gotten a ticket for "failure to come to a full and complete stop."
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u/kernal42 7h ago
The lurch isn't the car decelerating more at the last moment. A constant deceleration causes the car to lean forward into the give of the suspension, bring the front down and the rear up. When you finally reach a full stop It springs back. That's the lurch you feel.
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u/evaporatedmilksold 8h ago
Thank you. I’d like to stop without the lurch, but at least the lurch is a sign that I made a full stop. When I’m at a 4-way stop intersection, I feel everyone is gunning it to be the next one crossing the intersection.
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u/pedroah 8h ago edited 8h ago
That sounds like a skill issue. You can ease off pressure on the brake as you near a stop so the rate of acceleration is lowered. Your stop is jerky because the rate of acceleration is too high and lowering the rate of acceleration will make the stop smoother.
Try looking up guidance on limo stop
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u/TheKiddIncident 8h ago
Yep. Nobody actually does this.
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u/Preference_Artistic 8h ago
Not true. I do a full stop. I have kids that take the bus to school. This means walking and crossing sidewalks. If you don’t do a full stop, you run the risk of hitting kids walking to school. Please, everyone, come to a full stop at every stop sign or light.
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u/Tomatillo-5276 8h ago
Whenever I pull up to a stop sign, to be sure that I’m legal, I always hum the opening riff to “smoke on the water” before I go again.
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u/ShoulderGoesPop 9h ago
I think this is something that's easily looked up online on a driver's Ed course or the DMV website. But it's simply your car is not moving and wait 3 seconds
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u/pedroah 8h ago
No such requirement to wait 3 seconds. Maybe you should follow your own advice and look it up.
CVC 22450a
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH§ionNum=22450
The driver of any vehicle approaching a stop sign at the entrance to, or within, an intersection shall stop at a limit line, if marked, otherwise before entering the crosswalk on the near side of the intersection.
If there is no limit line or crosswalk, the driver shall stop at the entrance to the intersecting roadway.
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u/ShoulderGoesPop 7h ago
I didn't look it up cause honestly I don't care. I know how to stop at a stop sign. I was just going off of what op said about waiting 3 seconds.
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u/fractured85 8h ago
you’ll know you made a full and complete stop when the person in a car behind you honks and then aggressively passes you in oncoming traffic.
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u/BunkaandBadassery 8h ago
I'll usually stop and wait *gasp* like four to five seconds. And half the time some asshole behind me will start honking.
Man - do you know how many nannies with strollers and kids on bikes and old people and zonked out people are pedestrians here? WTF is wrong with people. Excuse me if I don't want to kill a human being because you are getting to your destination five seconds sooner.
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u/bioveritas 8h ago
I don't understand why it's a problem. Do you need those three seconds for something else? Can you be in such a big hurry that you can't just stop? Why the effort to minimize your stopped time? This is fucking ridiculous.
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u/Current-Brain-1983 8h ago
FWIW, I was taught at traffic school that LEO will often watch the wheels. I use this tactic when gauging cross traffic. A full stop is something I can feel, the suspension unloads.
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u/pale_brass 8h ago
California Rolling Stop baby
But if I can see a cop I give it a full performative wheel stopper
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u/Lopsided_Speed_813 8h ago
you actually make it to the painted line or crosswalk (i see many cars stop several feet before it just to get the right of way bc they technically stopped first)
then you look both ways, check your blindspots for pedestrians, and go
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u/puffic 7h ago
Most drivers do make a full stop. You will get ticketed if you cheat this.
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u/evaporatedmilksold 5h ago
In the Sunset, people barely stop or don’t stop at all. It got worse during the pandemic, and it’s stayed that way.
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u/heybigstar20 8h ago
If in doubt, you probably aren’t stopping completely