The Epistemology of Road Signs

There are about four stop signs near my house on the way to the bus stop that I generally ignore. Two of them literally have no consequence if one is obedient to them or not. I guess I should explain that I’m riding my bike when I fly through these, but some people have a really strange allegiance to silly rules and have a huge crush on following all traffic laws and signs, despite their ineffectiveness.

I’m not a bicycle evangelist by most means, but here’s what’s great about riding one: compared to cars, I have no visual impairments when riding my bike. In fact, I have an even greater field of vision since bicycles sit slightly higher than car height, but that doesn’t apply when comparing to vans. This 100%+ capability doesn’t go down because I don’t have mirrors, since I have a side mirror attached to the handlebar that provides what I need.

I even have 100% hearing capabilities, whereas in a car you have 0% up to maybe 50% if you roll your side’s window down. Utilizing hearing might not sound (heh) like much of an advantage, but there is one when you’re on a quiet mode of transport and need to be fully aware of transports that make lots of noise. I suppose, too, there’s an evolutionary argument that can be made where vision and hearing combined adds up to a certain awareness of surroundings, an awareness of a greater degree than if you just added them together.

Basically, unless there is an invisible, completely silent, faster-than-light car actively on the American auto market, I’m in no danger if I blow through a stop sign. I’m pretty good at meta-analyzing my sense’s current states, and if they were mitigated in some way I’d compensate with the correct amount of caution. In optimal conditions, I’m confident my powers of observation provide me with better decision-making information than a painted piece of metal.

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