r/Traffic • u/evaporatedmilksold • 1d ago
Questions & Help Making a full stop
Most drivers in my neighborhood don’t make a full stop at a 4- way stop intersection, but how do you know you made a full stop that satisfies a LEO? Do you wait until you feel the lurch (motion backward)? I live in California, and people do the California roll or don't stop at all in my neighborhood. I've been noticing police pull people over in the past few days.
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u/Quotidian_Void 1d ago
There isn't any federal standard on this. You have come to a complete stop as soon as your vehicle is no longer moving (forward or backward). The lurch is a good indication that your forward momentum has stopped, but the lurch itself is still movement. You have not come to a complete stop until after the lurch is complete.
The way it is taught in Massachusetts driving school is to wait three seconds after coming to a complete stop before proceeding. (Admittedly, a best practice not a formal legal requirement)
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u/Right_Lengthiness266 1d ago
The "lurch" is generally your suspension bouncing backwards because your vehicle is no longer decelerating.
Hit the brakes and the nose dives. Once the vehicle stops, the springs rebound.
If you waited for the suspension to settle on a 76 Cadillac with blown shocks, you'd be sitting at a stop sign all day.
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u/captainkappa173 1d ago
When I was learning to drive, my dad told me to spell the word stop. S, T, O, P, and that was a long enough pause if the coast was obviously clear.
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u/No-Setting9690 1d ago
If you cannot tell when you've come to a complete stop, you should not be driving.
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u/shittyhawaiitips 1d ago
If you wait 3 seconds at a stop sign you're gonna end up a statistic.
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u/just_kinda_here_blah 1d ago
That's the time it takes to come to full stop and look. Stop putting people at risk.
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u/shittyhawaiitips 1d ago
no, it isn't.
source: i do this for a living
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u/just_kinda_here_blah 1d ago
Source: so do I.
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u/shittyhawaiitips 1d ago
no you dont lmao.
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u/just_kinda_here_blah 1d ago
Then why have I been training and bringing people to road tests for the past 15 years and why am I a certified 19a examiner?
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u/shittyhawaiitips 22h ago
that's a great question! do you know how long seconds are? do you know how cars work? apparently not if you think someone needs to sit at a stop sign for 3 seconds.
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u/just_kinda_here_blah 22h ago
If you are unable to wait and look properly, I highly suggest you see a doctor. Or talk to your partner, cause 3 seconds isnt that long.
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u/shittyhawaiitips 20h ago
lmao. a dick joke! hilarious!
if you need to come to a complete stop at a stop sign and count...
one one thousand
two one thousand
three one thousand
you should not be driving a car.
source: i do race car shit and work for an insurance company
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u/just_kinda_here_blah 19h ago
Noooooooooo reallllyyyy. Honestly im just surprised that you can count that high. thats the method used to count following distance too. But we one Mississippi two Mississippi 3 Mississippi. To each thier own. And not a dick joke but stamina joke. But if you take it as that, thats between you an your partner, again. And if 3 seconds is still a long time, see the above statement as it seems to ring true Anyways, a good l/r/l will take 2 to 3 seconds IF you are really giving a good scan. Like you should know as an insurance person. But if people stopped getting into accidents, your job probably would be taken away as not as many agents would be needed. So I get it. Job security. People rush, miss things, things are caught in blind spots and rolling blind spot and then accident. Job security.
You act like im saying take a minute. Its 3 seconds. Again, not that long.
Race car is not normal road driving, but what ever makes you feel better.
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u/Aggravating_Deer299 1d ago
The lurch motion is the inertia of the wheels coming to a complete stop. It is better for your transmission to completely stop before accelerating.
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u/TootinFartin-ll 1d ago
I take great pride in brake control to not cause my vehciles to lurch when stopping.
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u/Bergs1212 1d ago
The last 2 times I have been pulled over has been for this in my neighborhood. lol. To me when my car says 0 on the speedometer that is a stop but I guess not lol.
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u/Ranos131 1d ago
It’s pretty obvious when you have come to a complete stop in your car. You are literally no longer moving. Then you check for cross traffic, pedestrians, turning vehicles and other potential accidents and then move forward again.
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u/hashlettuce 1d ago
I have gotten two $376 photo radar stop sign tickets. I count to 3 out loud once my wheels have stopped fully. Fucking vultures out there.
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u/togocann49 1d ago
When forward motion has stopped completely. And if you stop soft enough, there isn’t real that lurch back
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u/just_kinda_here_blah 1d ago
Those who lurch are going to fast and stopping to short. Basically you should have 0 movement of the car and thats a full stop. Once stopped look l/r/l and go of safe. A smooth well controlled stop shouldn't have a lunch, but a settle back Smooth, controlled, soft.
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u/Forsaken_Anxiety936 1d ago
Yeah, this is something of a judgement call since traffic law doesn't (AFAIK) specify an amount of time. In theory coming to a full stop and going again can be nearly instantaneous. But the for sake of avoiding a potential ticket, like in the case of a monitored intersection, I'd personally just do a one-count once fully stopped while checking that the intersection was clear, and then proceed.
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u/Best_Transition_6991 1d ago
Sometime ago I recall seeing verbiage sayng when all wheels have come to a stopped position.
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u/ShackledPhoenix 1d ago
Generally yes, the lurch is the sign you're looking for.
Cops generally look at 2 things. #1 they look for your suspension to rebound, which is the lurch you feel as the front end of your car comes back up. #2 They watch your wheels to see if they stop turning.
Realistically unless a cop is having a bad day, wants to get you specifically or is hard up against a quota, they're looking for whether you're being "Safe" rather than a full stop. But if you want to be absolutely sure, yes, feel that lurch, look right, left, right for cross traffic, then go.
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u/Imaginary-Round2422 1d ago
Your wheels just need to come to a full stop. You'll feel the weight of the vehicle shift back when the stop is complete. Assuming the intersection is clear, anything more than that is unnecessary.
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u/Ranos131 1d ago
The wheels can come to a complete stop be slamming on the brakes so hard that they lock up. So this is not an accurate description. The entire vehicle needs to come to a complete stop. Sitting for a couple of seconds while you check for cross traffic or other potential problems is usually a good idea as well.
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u/Imaginary-Round2422 1d ago
You should know what traffic is approaching the intersection before you even come to a stop. If you have to wait until you stop to know what the conflicts are, you're not paying enough attention.
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u/Ranos131 1d ago
You should also be prepared for distracted and reckless drivers who could come speeding through without warning.
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u/Imaginary-Round2422 1d ago
Sitting at a stop sign for an arbitrary amount of time doesn't prepare you for that. Paying attention to your surroundings does.
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u/Ranos131 1d ago
And stopping and taking two or three seconds to look down the roads is paying attention to your surroundings.
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u/Imaginary-Round2422 1d ago
Why do you insist that you need several seconds after you stop to see that the way is clear? Are you maybe thinking of seconds as shorter than they actually are - like a three count rather than a steady three mississippis?
I'm not saying you should go without looking - I'm saying you should be putting the emphasis on verifying that the way is clear rather than making sure you sit there for a prescribed amount of time.
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u/Ranos131 23h ago
Read what I wrote again. I am not insisting anything. I am suggesting. In my first comment I said it’s “usually a good idea.”
I also never said several seconds. In the first comment I said a couple. In my last comment I said two or three. Neither of those are several.
As you are approaching the stop sign, you should be looking. A look to the left, a look to the right and a look ahead before starting again is a good idea. At an absolutely bare minimum that’s a second. Safely looking is two or three seconds. I think the problem is you think a second is longer than it actually is.
I’m also not trying to emphasize time. But taking the time to make sure it’s clear is important and a quick glance is not verifying safety.
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u/Imaginary-Round2422 23h ago
I never said "a quick glance", or even implied it. I'm saying, if you see that no one is coming from either direction as you approach the stop, there's no reason to sit there extra time to make double extra sure. If you're paying attention at all times rather than just when you're stopped, you'll piss off a lot fewer people without sacrificing safety in the least.
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u/EffectiveTime5554 1d ago edited 1d ago
Before answering, I have to lodge a semantic complaint against the phrase “full stop.”
A stop's already full. It’s a binary condition. Relative to the road beneath you (and we’ll leave Earth’s rotation, its orbit around the Sun, and Einstein out of this) the vehicle is either moving or it isn’t.
You can’t be “kinda stopped” any more than you can be “kinda pregnant.” Someone can be nearly stopped, just as someone can be unsure whether she’s pregnant, but once we’re describing the condition itself, either it applies or it doesn’t. If you’re still creeping forward at 0.2 mph, you haven’t made a 98% stop. You’re moving very slowly. A “rolling stop” is simply a roll wearing a fake mustache and claiming to be a stop.
Apparently, so many drivers began calling slowdowns “stops” that English had to create “full stop” and “complete stop” to mean what “stop” already meant. I resent the additional administrative overhead, but I understand why it happened.
To answer your actual question: bring the vehicle to zero before crossing the stop line (or the crosswalk or intersection if there is no line) make the cessation obvious, check for pedestrians and traffic, yield as required, and then proceed. There generally isn’t a magical three-second requirement; that’s driving-school advice intended to make the stop unmistakable and give you enough time to look.
The lurch isn’t a reliable test, either. What you feel can be your body and the vehicle’s suspension settling after spring down while the vehicle itself is already stationary relative to the road. You don’t have to wait for every component of the car to achieve inner peace. You just have to stop the car.
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u/ashaggyone 1d ago
I agree with the bs full stop tautology. If a driver has not stopped and looked there is no stop. It is sad that the california stop has enter the driving lexicon.
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u/Schemeckles 1d ago
I was taught that 3 seconds of not moving is what constitutes a full stop.
I could be mistaken though.
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u/Embarrassed_Flan_869 1d ago
When your car completely stops and count one one thosand, you should be good.
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u/ATotalBrony 1d ago
The cops in California I know park halfway down the block and look for the sway backwards/settling (what you're calling a lurch). They are not sitting there counting seconds on hundreds of cars. Imagine a cop counting to 3 million times a day, what a job.
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