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California father arrested after repainting crosswalk, adding stop signs near children’s park

⁨306⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Valnao@sh.itjust.works⁩ to ⁨mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-26/el-segundo-father-arrested-after-installing-unauthorized-stop-signs-near-childrens-park

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Comments

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  • grue@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    The city ultimately determined the intersection did not meet the required traffic volume for additional stop signs

    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.

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    • magiccupcake@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      If 50 people sign a petition, you don’t need to do a study. Just put in the fucking stop sign.

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    • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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      • grue@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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    • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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      • Angrydeuce@lemmy.world ⁨44⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ 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

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    • HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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  • Zachariah@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Just install these instead:

    Image

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    • HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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  • boonhet@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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  • SarahValentine@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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      • PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        He will probably get a fine at the end of the day

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  • Deceptichum@quokk.au ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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  • IWW4@lemmy.zip ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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    • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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    • kurikai@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      car drivers would learn to be more careful and less selfish

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      • explodicle@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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    • joyjoy@lemmy.zip ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The cops don’t care if the stop sign wasn’t there. They’ll give you a ticket anyway.

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      • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        While yes, you get out of the ticket if you prove the sign was missing at the time of the infraction.

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    • barooboodoo@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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?

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      • IWW4@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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  • Entertainmeonly@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Bureaucracy at its finest

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    • Warl0k3@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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      • magiccupcake@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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      • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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    • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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  • Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Brb, adding a bike lane to the nearest stroad

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  • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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  • devolution@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Its quota season.

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  • DragonAce@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    This was in El Segundo? Wonder if they found my wallet.

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  • abbadon420@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Good! Filthy criminal! Lock 'm up!

    /s

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  • taiyang@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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  • Pika@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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    • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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      • Pika@sh.itjust.works ⁨55⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ 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.

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  • altphoto@lemmy.today ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    That Park’s revenue is negative. Sir, don’t you see? The shareholders!

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  • Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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    • Buelldozer@lemmy.today ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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.

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      • Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Yes, thank you.

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