Originally Posted by
Moishe
Something very similar to what happened to this cyclist happened to me once. At 6:57pm one Saturday in a small town on the Connecticut coast, I parked my car on a nearly empty street near a sign that said “no parking 9:00am to 7:00pm” and went in to the nearby art-house movie theatre to catch a 7:00pm showing of a dismal foreign movie. After the crappy movie, I returned to find a parking ticket written at 6:58pm. What I did not know at the time was that that Saturday was a declared Chicken**** Day in Connecticut, just as this cyclist didn’t now that it was Chicken**** Day in Florida.
I never stop at a Stop sign when riding my bike if I have clear lines of sight showing that it is safe to blow past the sign. I have run Stop signs in such situations in view of The Police with impunity. But I would never do this on Chicken**** Day.
Happened to me while in college in the early 70's. It was around 6:00 AM on a Sunday morning. I was riding through downtown Lincoln, Nebraska on my way to my summer job at a 24 hour grocery store.
I had attained a pretty decent speed on my lemon yellow Schwinn Varsity. I approached a stop sign, saw no one, which was unsurprising as there was essentially no traffic. I looked both ways and proceeded through the stop sign. Unbeknownst to me, one of Lincoln's finest was hiding behind a large sign. He pulled out and followed me with his lights and siren going. He pulled me over, listened to my explanation, agreed there was no traffic, and gave me a verbal warning, sending me on my way.
Had either or both of us copped, an attitude, the situation probably would have escalated. Fortunately, he was cool and so was I. No small feat as university students and police weren't necessarily the best of friends back then.