A reader just sent in a new video shot by local community news site Neighborhood Notes that shows blatant disregard of stop signs at the SE Ladd Ave entrance into Ladd Circle. Watch it below…
Ladd Circle from Neighborhood Notes on Vimeo.
The video comes as local debate and dialogue heats up about how to deal with lack of compliance with stop signs at this location.
For what it’s worth, the video shows only a few cars going through the intersection — all of which fail to fully stop. At least three of the bicycle operators in the video come to a complete stop (one of them to let someone walk across the crosswalk). One of them — who obviously noticed the filming taking place — put his foot down and demonstratively looked both ways before pedaling again (it’s hilarious).
As I watched the video, I wasn’t concerned or outraged at the blatant law-breaking. Instead, it makes it even more clear that something needs to be changed. This many otherwise law-abiding and upstanding citizens can’t be wrong — and they certainly wouldn’t choose to willingly put their lives in danger (notice that all types of people roll through, not just crazy scofflaw daredevils).
This video will likely give new strength to those who favor yield signs in this locations instead of stops.
This reminds me of another situation where an ill-advised stop sign was located. On SE Caruthers near OMSI, people on bikes frequently disobeyed the stop sign. Upon review of the situation, PBOT decided it shouldn’t be there and they took it out. The sky has not fallen.
We look forward to more coverage of this issue from Neighborhood Notes and to results of the evolving conversation around this intersection.
UPDATE: As many have pointed out, it’s obvious the footage has been edited, so it’s hard to determine how many people actually did stop. I think it’s safe to say though, that the footage was done over the course of a few hours, which proves that compliance is low.
UPDATE 2, 2:50pm: The person who took the video explains how it was edited:
I shot the video Monday June 27 between 4:45 and 5:45 PM. It’s for a story that will be published on Neighborhood Notes. We’re having a little technical issue and waiting until that is resolved before posting.
The video is definitely edited. If I included all the video clips I took yesterday the video would be too long. But I was careful to include behavior that was in line with what I saw. I’m comfortable stating that it is an accurate representation of yesterday’s behavior. I included the cars because I wanted to show all behavior at the intersection. Some cars did come to a complete stop, but they were in clips that were edited out.
The video was not one single recording because I was using a point and shoot camera that does video. It can record 10 minute clips. This was not meant to be a scientific study, but rather to illustrate the issue an give a reasonable representation of behavior. I had one hour to shoot and then a couple hours to edit to meet a deadline.
There was another person shooting video from the center of the circle. He is a neighbor who is documenting the behavior.
I hope that clears up any questions about how this was put together. Look for our story later today!