crispy010

Was out for my first ride in about a week. Got about 3 or 4 miles in and came to a T intersection, road that's the top part of the T has right of way, I was on the vertical part of the T.

Line of sight in both directions is about 200 yards. It's typically a busy road so I signal a right turn and unclip one foot, preparing to stop. Get up to the intersection and see it's clear - not a car in sight (highly unusual), clip back in and get on the gas. 30 seconds later I hear a police buzzer behind me, look back and find a cruiser on my ass. Thinking he just wants past I pull off into the shoulder, he follows. Hmm, he's after me... wonder why. Pull into a parking lot....

To make a long story slightly shorter he saw me run the stop sign and decided I needed a lecture on traffic safety. No ticket. To be honest, I was just happy he was paying enough attention to notice me! I still have no idea where he was hiding.

Anyway, as expected he had a couple of notions about bicycles that were incorrect (if I gave you a ticket, it would make your car insurance go up. Umm, no) but I didn't think arguing with him would be a good idea so I just nodded and let him talk. Overall a pretty nice guy though.

Would I be mad if he had ticketed me? No. It was a completely legit traffic stop and he had every right to pull me over. Like I said, I'm just glad to have confirmation he SAW me.

ItsJustMe

Glad to hear that this is going on. I wish we could get all cops to give a damn.

Dan The Man

That's why I always take a quick look behind me as well as side to side when riding through intersections. Also, take a quick look at the hubcaps. Cop cars never have full silver hubcaps. Around here we have a lot of unmarked police cars. If there was a one way street nearby, or back alleys that I know, I might consider just looking straight ahead and not stopping.

The last time I got pulled over for running a red light the police just wanted to run my id and check me for carrying drugs. Funny thing was that they never looked inside my opaque water bottle, which is really the most plausible place I could have hidden drugs.

Pscyclepath

Good for the cop!!

spry

Silly stop signs.
You should of told the cop those are for other people,not me.

ItsJustMe

Or maybe he should HAVE told the cop...

Where are people getting "should of" from? I see it a lot lately and it doesn't even make any sense. "Of" is not a verb, normal or auxiliary.

MGtrack

He could have been a real jerk, but he wasn't. Props for the cop.

yes

Are you sure about that?
I think that in some states, you can get points on your drivers license for bike infractions. The points could raise your car insurance premiums.

ItsJustMe

Yes, in some states, tickets issued for road violations while riding a bike do count against your operator's license. Check local laws.

BurnMyEyes

I hope you didn't let them do either of those things.

Widsith

It comes from the contraction should've which sounds like should of when pronounced. Many people go by the sound of a word or phrase rather than by working out the meaning of the individual words, even though those words may not make much sense together when considered individually. That's how we get things like "for all intensive purposes" in place of "for all intents and purposes" or "Pullet Surprise" for "Pulitzer Prize."

In this case, "should of" is not functioning as two separate words but as a single syntactic unit. If this usage continues, it someday may become a single word (perhaps "shoulda" or even "shooda"), just as "God be with you" turned into "goodbye" and "by Our Lady" became "bloody."

unterhausen

shoulda is already in use. I assume you've heard the saying "shoulda, woulda, coulda."
The difference is that people writing "should of" don't know it's wrong, whereas people writing "shoulda" generally realize it's informal writing. Maybe they'll shorten "should of" to "should've."

Widsith

Linguists would say that should of is "non-standard" rather than "wrong." My point is that this usage, if continued long enough, will become standard. It wouldn't surprise me if someday should of is considered "correct" and shoulda continues to be considered an informal, deliberate misspelling.

Living languages change continually, and English is no exception. Some of us may not like certain constructions (I loathe "should of" myself) but it's not up to us as individuals, or to teachers or grammarians or lexicographers. It's up to the everyday speakers and writers of a language to determine what shape it will take.

wheel

If you lived in Tucson cops will set up enforcement traps with 200 dollar tickets or 4 hours of your time.
https://www.azstarnet.com/sn/mailstor...hru/309429.phpailstory-clickthru/309429.php

spry

I should of,would of,could of posted with a "efen" Roget Thesaurus for a proper adverb but the grammar police never sleep.
Like the above poster stated,"casual conversation".

ItsJustMe

That's the problem really. I think people don't even realize that the language that they're speaking is supposed to actually make sense. Otherwise they wouldn't say things like "could care less". The language is being quickly devolved into contextual grunts.