Moral Dilemma About Stop Signs

I have mentioned in another . It's my form of extreme sport risking my life everyday. It's not quite as satisfying as an Evel Knievel stunt, but it's the best I can do.

When I do drive it's usually on Sunset or Pacific Coast Highway as a means to go to other parts of Los Angeles or to get to Los Liones to hike. I rarely drive on small residential streets except as a route to reach these thruways. Since both are controlled by street signals, the speediness of the drivers isn't noticeably problematic for me.

For a change, the other day I found myself driving through Huntington Palisades in the late morning. I noted the streets are beautifully wide and at this time of day there were no other vehicles on the road except for one Mercedes Benz convertible right behind me and no pedestrians in sight. I had to admit, it was very tempting to drive faster than the residential speed limit. I mean it was a beautiful day and the emptiness of the streets was so inviting.

Unfortunately, the driver behind me seemed to have the same temptation and was tailgating me. On looking back, I should have pulled over and let him pass. I didn't think of it at the time. Since I am very old school, I do stop at stop signs. I was trained to stop at them even if there are no pedestrians or cars in sight. It's probably silly, but I do it anyway. I never felt silly about doing it until I came back to Pacific Palisades.

So I stopped at a stop sign, and I guess the driver of the Mercedes, being used to the Palisadian habit of running them, didn't expect me to stop and nearly rear-ended me. He came pretty close but fortunately not close enough. I continued driving and stopping at stop signs. I found myself both embarrassed by my silly habit and fearful that he might think I was taunting him. I felt this moral dilemma: should I obey the law or should I follow the habits of others? I feel better when I obey the law, but I don't want to risk an accident. It's a hard call. I'm not a particularly rigid person. I am willing to bend the rules when not doing so creates dysfunction, but for some reason here I find myself very uncomfortable with it. Bending this rule means supporting the hazardous driving of my community, and I just can't find it in my heart to do that.

I do fear by sticking with the law I am creating dysfunction. If I am driving with a different set of rules than the rest of the community, I could potentially wreak traffic havoc. I have been honked at for stopping at stop signs, so it appears my habit is considered inappropriate behavior. On the other hand, I also think the rules for which the community is bending also wreaks traffic havoc. I truly am perplexed as to what to do.

I have concluded that I will continue to stop at stop signs, but I will do as I have been doing by limiting my driving mostly to the major thruways. By reducing my time behind the wheel on residential streets, I will not negatively impact the traffic flow around me with my habits. I can then maintain my integrity and drive in a way that feels right to me and avoid the coercion of other drivers to change. That's the best solution I have at the moment aside from letting speedy drivers pass when streets are bare. I wonder if anyone else has felt this dilemma? What do you do?