Just install these instead:
California father arrested after repainting crosswalk, adding stop signs near children’s park
Submitted 2 weeks ago by Valnao@sh.itjust.works to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
Comments
Zachariah@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
hey that’s cheating. that was how i crossed busy streets when i was walking home from undergrad.
i had a bright neon painted metal water bottle. I would raise it and make eye contact. just like that. like, this is mine, but it can be yours. you don’t know if it weighs an ounce or 5 pounds. stops traffic remarkably well, especially considering the law and the sign everyone ignored right above my head said “stop for pedestrians”.
yes, i did have a death wish you don’t need to ask. living in utah does that to you when you’ve seen life on the outside.
TwilitSky@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Is Utah that bad? It’s at the top of so many lists. I could imagine the people being the biggest problem, though.
boonhet@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
The city ultimately determined the intersection did not meet the required traffic volume for additional stop signs,
It shouldn’t be about how much traffic there is. If people are going too fast and/or there’s a visibility issue and/or there’s danger of kids walking into the street, there needs to be a stop sign because that actually slows people down and makes it safer for everyone involved. Even my carbrain understands that.
Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
The panthers used to get stop lights put in in weeks that localities had been refusing calls from for years. You want to do stuff like this, get organized. And not dancing in frog suits organized, militant, community focused organized with educational programs and childcare for your community.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
The Panthers did it because their neighborhoods were being systematically destroyed by the government. It’s not the same at all.
SarahValentine@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
That’s a hard line to walk. Being so afraid your kid will get hit by a car that you do something that could get you sent to prison, where you certainly won’t be able to do anything for said kid.
The city officials need to be the ones facing consequences for this, not him.
ryathal@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Courts and juries are somewhat good at identifying bureaucratic incompetence. Prison is unlikely, but the fact he will have to appear in court likely a few times to resolve this is still not great.
PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
He will probably get a fine at the end of the day
IWW4@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
I don’t have a problem with this.
Random people don’t get to decide where stop signs go and do not go.
How about if someone just decided to remove a stop sign.
kurikai@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
car drivers would learn to be more careful and less selfish
explodicle@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I prefer selfish car drivers; they’re predictable. I’m fine with them stopping only because there’s a stop sign. When a car driver decides to be “nice” and gestures for me to go, that’s when I get concerned.
barooboodoo@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
How about if someone just decided to remove a stop sign.
Are those 2 situations equivalent at all? I can’t think of a situation where adding a stop sign up would make the intersection more dangerous whereas the removal of one would almost certainly make it more dangerous. In your mind is the only way to regulate this to ban both for some reason?
IWW4@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Traffic control is a massive issue that involves numerous factors beyond “danger”.
So yes you can not have random entities making those decisions, There has to be a single governing body.
joyjoy@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
The cops don’t care if the stop sign wasn’t there. They’ll give you a ticket anyway.
KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
While yes, you get out of the ticket if you prove the sign was missing at the time of the infraction.
CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
He’s not a random person, he’s a resident of the neighborhood where he made the change. City officials and this alleged traffic engineer would be considered the “random people” here as they have absolutely zero stake in any of this.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
City officials and this alleged traffic engineer would be considered the “random people” here
It’s literally their fucking job dude, what are you talking about
Entertainmeonly@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Bureaucracy at its finest
Warl0k3@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
As much as this case might have been justified (which we just don’t know without the traffic study), condoning random people fucking with street signage is a fucking terrible idea. There are very good reasons not to randomly change traffic patterns, especially outside of a popular park; fuckcars, but also vigilante traffic engineering is an insanely dangerous game to play.
magiccupcake@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Nah, this road is a fucking textbook example of a bad neighborhood intersection.
Wide straight road with a hill on one side leads to unsafe driving speeds. Combined with parking at the intersection making visibility low for anyone crossing the intersection (cars, pedestrians, and bikes all included!)
This intersection needs intervention, and a stop sign is a bare minimum solution. Speed bumps and daylighting would also be justified.
We know we build unsafe intersections, we don’t need a traffic study to confirm it, especially if you have a large number of residents with the same complaint.
NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Nah, this was stupid. If he felt obligated to fix something broke, it’s on the county/town, not him. All he did was make the area safer.
CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Much like that park bathroom that was going to cost something like $2M to install in San Francisco. Once the residents and news got ahold of the story, suddenly the bathroom would only cost $100k to install.
Deceptichum@quokk.au 2 weeks ago
Anarchism meets the state.
Direct action and taking charge of the change you want to see is great, states fucking things up because they’re not the ones in power is pathetic.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Yeah what could possibly go wrong if we just let every Tom, Dick and Harry with no knowledge or experience in any of this, to just put up traffic signs anywhere they want?
Surely that goes both ways right? There’s a stop sign by my house that I don’t like, so I’m going to just remove it. Fuck the state, right?
FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
There’s a difference between lone individuals tearing out stop signs and a neighborhood collectively deciding to install one near a park.
btsax@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
Real “If we let gay people get married, soon people will be marrying their hamsters” energy
WoodScientist@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I want to get together with my neighbor across the street and put a toll booth in front of my house. I live at the entrance to a cul-de-sac.
Doom@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Our own neighborhoods don’t belong to us.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Brb, adding a bike lane to the nearest stroad
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
Good. Downvote all you want.
If you let everyone design their local traffic flow it will be impossible to go anywhere. It’s worse than everyone deciding if they want low-income housing in their neighborhood.
chloroken@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
A car-brained, embarrassing comment.
The safety of children is more important than the speed you’re able to drive to Krispy Kreme Donuts. If the government doesn’t address it, the people will. You barking about traffic flow is irrelevant and I do not care.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
It goes both ways. We have engineers trained to do this shit for a whole bunch of reasons, and safety of pedestrians is like the main one.
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
Yeah, people also don’t want high-speed rail going past their house or whatever.
If the government doesn’t address it, the people will.
Good luck with that. Most people like cars a lot more than I do.
potpotato@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The intersection was already a 2-way stop and, given the street topology and level of service, changing it to an all-way stop is benign.
The concern I have is that part of the charges include painting the crosswalk where one already exists. That’s not “design[ing] their local traffic flow,” but following up with expected public works. Granted he painted a ladder design rather than a standard continental pattern, but you should probably just shut the fuck up in the future.
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
Yeah, the crosswalk part was harmless, even if he technically wasn’t supposed to do the municipality’s job for them. The rest I’ll take your word for.
The charges include interfering with a traffic control device, grand theft, and vandalism exceeding $400
Actually reading the article, the first fits, but the rest is definitely the cops power tripping, lol.
CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
And once someone (probably a child) gets hit and dies, the city will say how sorry this tragedy is… will claim they’ll do something, and then do nothing. Because words are cheap. Oh, and they’ll act like this wasn’t avoidable, there was no way to know this kind of thing could happen.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
How would they possibly benefit from not doing anything about it in that situation? Your local municipal government isn’t necessarily out to get you dude, it’s usually made up mostly of normal people who want to do whats best for their community.
CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
My city approved a monopoly because a business threatened not to come to the city if it had to compete. Truly, what was best for the community! Oh, and 3M dumps a lot of crap into the water because they don’t want to spend the money to properly filter it, wasn’t until a large grocery brand showed up and forced their hand that the city did ANYTHING about the terrible water. Just normal people who want to do whats best for their community…
If you feels so strongly about this, why don’t you run for city council?
Must be nice to have as much free time as you do to just take on additional responsibilities/roles in life. Or are you implying that if I’m not on the city council, I’m not allowed to have an opinion…? What exactly is your point and why are you taking it so personally?
devolution@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Its quota season.
DragonAce@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This was in El Segundo? Wonder if they found my wallet.
abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Good! Filthy criminal! Lock 'm up!
/s
TwilitSky@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Ok let’s change the headline up a bit: California father arrested after erasing crosswalk paint and taking down stop signs from near the children’s park.
ohshit604@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
What good does changing the headline do?
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
OG says repaints
New one would say essentially removed paint.
JayDee@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
That is not what the article describes at all.
A city representative said officials reviewed the intersection after receiving concerns from Brandlin and determined it did not meet the requirements for a four-way stop but added pedestrian striping to improve safety.
Brandlin spent about $1,000 of his own money on commercial-grade materials, including 30-inch reflective stop signs matching the other ones on the street. He began installing them himself to replace the yellow posted crosswalk signs on the intersection in the early morning of March 14, according to the El Segundo Police Department.
Police arrested him around 1:30 a.m. while he worked on the second direction of traffic. Brandlin said the arrest was excessive, saying he was cited with multiple charges, including felonies.
TwilitSky@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
People should not be misusing public property in contravention of the law.
Pika@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
imo if you are going to start changing how the road is, start blocking it or start damaging the road to force a speedbump or hole. It’s a lot cheaper than spending 1000$, a lot faster and less likely to get caught in the act.
CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
That seems counterproductive because it just antagonizes people. His method blends in with the rest of the road and will likely gain much better compliance from drivers.
Pika@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I agree but, that’s a lot of money that takes a bunch of time to setup, for a solution that can be very cheaply fixed and then ignored again.
taiyang@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Huh, always weird when I see local news on my Lemmy feed.
FYI, South Bay is especially car brained, even my LA. We have a major refinery, some car manufacturer HQs, and I’m pretty sure more mechanics per capita than most of Cali. Long history with the automotive industry going back to the founding of a lot of these little cities.
It’s a shame, too. The beach cities are lovely places to walk and somehow have terrible biking and public transportation infrastructure. The people there can be a bit entitled, though (and it’s it just me or did this guy do it right outside his fucking home? Lol). But I don’t know a solution, it’s practically every other day someone is mowed down 'round here by a muscle car, and the areas East of El Segundo have a lot more waking families since we can’t afford cars.
A little hope, though. I saw they mentioned the Sawtelle area too. I used to live there, and not only did they 180 on that case, Stoner Park is now surrounded by mini roundabouts. So change does happen after this type of thing, and their jurisdiction is LA itself, not a smaller city in a city.
altphoto@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
That Park’s revenue is negative. Sir, don’t you see? The shareholders!
Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Weird that in one photo the stop marking is in negative, and the next photo the stop marking is white?
Seems to me like the photos aren’t trustworthy. Which again cast doubt on the whole story.Buelldozer@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Weird that in one photo the stop marking is in negative, and the next photo the stop marking is white?
The first photo is of the stencil, the second is from after it’s been painted.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yes, thank you.
grue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
For the record, this is 100% a lie. Every single warrant document (list of criteria) used by an engineer will have two magic words written at the bottom of the list:
“Engineering judgement.”
That means there is no such thing as a “required traffic volume” for a stop sign or any other kind of signal or marking. If the engineer, in his professional judgement, agrees that one is warranted, it’s warranted.
Engineers who hide behind things like warrants, pretending their hands are tied by them, are cowards and aren’t doing their jobs properly.
magiccupcake@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
If 50 people sign a petition, you don’t need to do a study. Just put in the fucking stop sign.
Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Even if the vehicle traffic didn’t meet some imaginary quota, that says nothing of the pedestrian traffic. Just another signal of our car-centric society.
grue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s typically one of the warrants. In addition to vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian volumes, other warrants include things like vehicle approach speed, sight distance, and crash statistics.
NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
There are stop signs in the middle of nowhere Ohio, where there’s literally a few cars on the road a day. I don’t see how volume should come into play when you’re next to a playground.
Angrydeuce@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah here in WI too. Like on 55mph state highways in the literal middle of nowhere, as in the intersection is corn fields on every quadrant.
Its weird, but of course I stop. Im only ever stopping for the corn, but I aint trying to have some cop come flying out of the corn and tear my ass up either lol
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 2 weeks ago
There is usually some guidance, although the regulations are usually written with more wiggle room than structural standards because of varying site conditions.
However, the hill causing an increase to the speed of the car and that the area has a known pedestrian draw to it would tip the scales more towards installing a stop sign.