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Boston declares you can't just put up your own stop signs

Double stop signs

When Alan Wright left his house in Roslindale this morning, he noticed these new and unusual stop signs in the middle of the intersection of Augustus Avenue and Whitford Street and wondered if BTD had put them up or if it were one of his more adventurous tactical urbanist neighbors.

BTD forcefully replied a couple hours later:

BTD did not install these. They will be removed.

BTD really does not like people applying their own traffic signs and markings.

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about as much as BPD likes enforcing actual stop signs.

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If you’re a cop, you’d have to be out of your damn mind to pull a car over, or do pretty much of anything. Ask any BPD and they’ll tell you the same thing.

We have created an environment where you can almost do whatever you want. The cops will just come at their leisure and take a report and go back to their Netflix. And I don’t blame them.

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The chances of getting a traffic citation in MA right now are about the same as a person under 20 dying of Covid-19 here. Zero.

The wealthy auto insurance companies get a cut (surcharge) on most MA moving violations. When the state finally reopens, it will be because Baker is under immense pressure from his campaign benefactors in the insurance industry who are missing their massive piece of the pie. Even then, the courts have clearly ruled that officers have full discretion whether or not to issue a citation and cannot be ordered by superiors to do so. In the current climate of civil unrest and unwarranted fear of Covid-19, why would any officer bother? There is no such thing as a routine traffic stop. If things go bad, or if the officer merely sneezes during a stop, they will be hung out to dry. As noted earlier, it's almost 100% reactionary policing now, no proactive traffic enforcement whatsoever.

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As noted earlier, it's almost 100% reactionary policing now, no proactive traffic enforcement whatsoever.

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come out to my neighborhood once things are "back to normal" and walk around. Hell, spend an hour or so walking up and down Bremen St. alone and my point will be made.

Traffic enforcement in this city was an absolute joke before COVID, and will be after.

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From what I've seen, the only "traffic enforcement" that gets done is when the police want an excuse to stop and search a vehicle and its occupants.

In all other cases, Thunderdome rules remain in effect.

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Thought the staties were gonna shoot me every time they pulled me over (which was often) when I first moved here from CA. They'd yell and scream and pull me out of the car, it was gd terrifying.

Now I got MA plates and I haven't interacted with them since.

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There's not a chance in hell the BPD will be anything but antagonistic to Councillor Wu (who lives near this intersection) if she runs against Marty. So yeah, don't hold your breath hoping for them to pick up the slack on enforcing anything near her house.

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Fan the flames of hate by attacking the police in a political issue without one strand of proof - I doubt Councilor Wu hates the police and I doubt they hate her but feel free to make outrageous claims from your narrow minded perspective. The 1st amendment gives you the right to advance your opinions, it does not convey approval or agreement. I think most in our neighborhood would disagree with your Baseless assessment

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is proving Fishy again incorrect.

From the CDC:

Covid deaths under 24: 808.

They don't divide the numbers at 20 on the site I found. Granted you might consider the CDC "deep state" and excuse dismissing the numbers. You might want to note that Covid deaths of children 14 and under is 114.

I think that the grieving parents of children who died from Covid will disagree with your number of 0%.

As for "unwarranted fear" please justify your statement. Healthy fear recognizes these facts: In just 5 months there are over 6 million positive cases including 800,000 and counting deaths. Or do you believe these are fake numbers?

Another health fear is that the man whose life is devoted to causing suffering and failure will fight to remain in the position that allows him to encourages disease and deaths in the nation.

Let me suggest that you reach out to the parents of children under 14 and tell them that either they are liars or their children never existed.

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Who claimed several times that cops will refuse to pull people over because they don't want to raise peoples' insurance premiums?

But sure, yeah, it's all civil unrest and Covid-19 now that's leading cops to not do their jobs. Can't wait to hear what the next excuse is once that's over.

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I think we can all agree that the cops have lots of different reasons not to pull people over.

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I think this is a splendid idea although the post and signs could be raised a little but not much higher than eyeline level. Here’s why. To place a stop sign at every entry requires 4 separate sign postings and the placement of those signs often causes them to become lost in other signage or overgrown plantings etc... The other positive about this central placement is it’s visibility makes it almost impossible to miss seeing it unless otherwise preoccupied. Why not keep it in place and study the effects. Who knows perhaps these gentle people have hit upon an effective tool for traffic control and pedestrian safety.

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The effects have been studied since the introduction of the auto. Results: objects placed within or between travel lanes will be run into by inattentive or impaired drivers. Repeatedly. I once lived for a year by a place where a street became divided. The blinking yellow light at the dividing point was wiped out with depressing regularity. If the BTD doesn't remove the rogue stop signs from the middle of the intersection quickly, some obliging motorist will do it.

Objects placed adjacent to travel lanes also get run into; objects like the telephone pole in front of my house, which has been sheared off at the base twice since I've lived here. Also: signs, trees, pedestrians, parked cars, and yes, even bicycles.

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People tend to 'target fixate.'

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We saw those on the way home last night and thought it was a great idea. People tend to drive right down the middle of those streets and are lackadaisical about actually stopping rather than rolling through.

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Boston doesn't paint the yellow line on a lot of streets so people will drive up the middle regardless of how busy the street is - Allston Street in Allston is a terrifying game of chicken most days. Corey Road esp as there's a blind hill near the Whole Foods in Brighton that people still drive down the middle. People wait until the last second to veer over to avoid a front end collision while exceeding the speed limit - what could go wrong?

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It's right in the middle of the road. If a driver didn't notice this and was driving through at high speed, they could really get injured! (not to mention the damage to the poor car!)

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So there wasn't a Shot-Up Stop Sign?
To small to be a Boston sign. Springfield?

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I genuinely can't tell if this is serious or satire. Both here and on reddit, it could go either way

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If a driver didnt notice this they wouldnt notice a person, which is a lot more of an issue than damage to their car.

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If you're driving through at any speed, not to mention high speed, and don't notice that - right in the middle of the road - you need to turn in your license asap.

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Having something in the middle of the road isn't a bad idea if you do it right. This basically makes the intersection into a mini-roundabout (mini rotary?) which is a thing that they have sometimes in the UK, and seem to have some effectiveness at calming traffic. Of course if this was an actual mini-roundabout you'd want to make clear to drivers that they should go counter-clockwise around it, instead of just having a bunch of stop signs piled on top of each other. (And many mini-roundabouts are just circles painted on the ground or at least things with a curb so if people crash their car into it they won't smash things up too badly.)

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You are probably too young to remember the original Braintree Five Corners, which featured a stand in the middle of the chaos with an array of Keep Right signs around it. If drivers didn't approach it correctly, four cars would sometimes box themselves in around the stand, and another brave soul would need to get out of his car and direct the un-entanglement of said vehicles. It was fun to watch, though.

It was not noted as a calming feature, as the best approach was to gun it, and hope for the best, especially if you needed to make the dreaded left turn.

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with Markey signs.

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Before you know it, people might be stopping at that intersection.

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at this particular intersection. Placing stop signs at minor intersections like these only encourages drivers to disrespect all stop signs.

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I've never been there in my life. But I trust that the residents of that neighborhood have a much better conception of which intersections are dangerous than I do.

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Augustus needs a stop. Whitford not so much. Whitford probably has it as part of traffic calming.

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Likewise with No Turn On Red. It's really only needed for intersections where a turning vehicle doesn't have a clear view of oncoming traffic due to the layout of the intersection or a view blocked by buildings, trees, etc. Right on red after full stop (and yielding to pedestrians/bikes) should be allowed more often than not.

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Because drivers in this town are known for their meticulous adherence to traffic laws. That’s why four-way stops here are such a calm and uneventful experience.

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If they wanted people to actually stop you need to either put a police car in the intersection or a strategically placed telephone pole. To my knowledge both are very effective, signs not so much.

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And no, DOT regulations aren't arbitrary. They may be car-centric, but there's probably a good reason why it's dangerous to block the middle of the intersection.

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installed fluorescent yellow pedestrian crossing signs in crosswalks in the middle of the street at a couple of intersections in JP where drivers tend to, uh, forget to yield right of way. The one on Lamartine Street near Jackson Square has been knocked down and completely destroyed by vehicle traffic at least three times since it first went up a few years ago. Proposal to the DOT: install the next one (and another one where this photo was taken) with a concrete pylon in the middle of it, like the ones they install outside of US embassies in not-so-friendly places to stop car bombs or tanks.

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But not the type you're thinking of. This is anecdotal, but I saw an ambulance (sirens on) swiping and taking down one of those yield signs because the driver overestimated the space needed on their right. This was on Centre St in Westie in front of the 7-11 (the one next to the police precinct), and it's safe to assume that the incident was never reported. Again, it's anecdotal, but speeding drivers are not the only ones on the road -- and not the only ones at fault.

Snow plows are also an inevitable culprit. Yes, the signs are neon yellow, but the plow driver's probably been in their seat for many hours straight, staring at endless piles of distracting snow.

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You ain’t from around these parts are ya?

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That's the intersection just down the street from me and I have seen people "miss" the stop sign on Whitford too many times to count. If this helps drivers realize they are supposed to stop, I'm all for it. Maybe the city can put up the bigger official signs to help folks do a better job of noticing them.

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At least they used stop signs of the approved design. Unlike this junky font, which doesn't meet the standard: https://goo.gl/maps/jm8K5zuuMRTpctbE9

Some day when I have some free time, I'll investigate the Massachusetts nonstandard stop sign.

What company makes them? Why don't they follow the official design, when this stuff is specified very carefully and is supposed to be taken seriously? Why do so many city and town public works departments buy this crap and install it without making an issue out of it? Why don't state or federal highway regulators put a stop to it?

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Boy do I miss Boston

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I believe there were stories on UHub regarding people painting their own cross walks not that long ago elsewhere in Roslindale as well.

There is a process to request a stop sign and it takes time. You not only have to work with the Boston Transportation department, but various city agencies have to weigh in such as policem fire, and ENS to assure the stop sign or other traffic restrictyion does not have a negative impact on their operations. If a road carries an MBTA bus they would also weigh-in.

I can appreciate the neighbors wanting a stop sign here as it can be a problem intersection.

That said this is yet another instance of Roslindale people taking the law into their own hands when they don't get their own way.

You moved here knowing what you were buying and moving into didn't you? Or did the real estate agent bring you on a Sunday morning when there was no traffic or noise? Lots of that happening in Boston these days. I see the signs up all the time. That Sunday showing is not just for your convenience on your day off. It's setting the stage to show you something that is not real. Stage magic. Come weekdays you have trains, planes, and automobiles.

So to date we've seen the stop signs herein, the illegal crosswalks over off Robert Street, and the Resident Parking signs on streets off Roslindale's business district that came about after the application and signatures on the petition were falsified.

Please explain to me why taking the law into your own hands is OK.

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This seems to be another incident of Roslindale people taking matters into their own hands.

These pages already outlined the effort to create resident parking on streets just off the Roslindale business district, primarily targeting employees of Sullivan's Pharmacy that parked their cars there while on the job. When the resident parking signs started to go up many complained there was no public process. The city then found that many of the signatures submitted in favor of resident parking were forged. The signs then came down. You have to wonder what happened to the people that falsified the documents?

Then there was the homemade cross walk near the former School of Modern Languages near the train station. The city eventually did put in a crossing there but that was after the home made one was erased and a proper process followed.

There is a process for this to get it done legally. Often various departments have to weigh in on these things including police, fire, and EMS, and if there is a bus route that will be impacted the MBTA could weigh in as well, and even change their bus route if it is a problem.

Sometimes people don't get their way for good reason but it is never acceptable to take matters into your own hands.

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Wow. That's the first time I've heard of resident parking signs coming down. Anywhere.

The city has a well-documented process for requesting new resident parking restrictions, involving signatures from nearby residents. They don't ask the opinion of the people being excluded.

There is no process for removing it.

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