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Santa Monica Gets a Solar Powered Stop Sign
Via TAPCO, the company Santa Monica is working with on this project
No, it's not a photo-enforced stop sign powered by the sun (but how appropriate would that be for those controversial signs only found in state-owned parks), but Santa Monica is experimenting with curbing close calls at a stop sign near city hall at Olympic Drive and Avenida Mazatlan. The city testing out a stop sign that has blinking solar powered LED lights on the edges, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press.
It's on loan from Wisconsin-based TAPCO for four months and if they like it, each one costs $4,000. "We have a constant problem with people doing the California rolling stop there and while we haven't had any accidents or pedestrian injuries, there have been some close calls and a lot of people complained about it so we wanted to increase driver visibility," the city's traffic engineer said.
But we have questions (and feel free to comment below). Do people do rolling stops because they don't see the sign or because they are lazy or don't think rolling through is dangerous? Do blinking LED lights make people act differently?
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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