OK, let me help you folks out.
I've been 'stopping traffic' for all sorts of reasons.
At June this year, I went to pick up my second M1009 in Ft Riley, KS.
I got out of Colorado and was rolling along I-70 and came across a guy WANDERING in the left lane of I-70 east bound. I managed to wave traffic over to the right hand lane of the eastbound I-70 and got them to slow down while I corralled this guy and suggested he might be more comfortable back in his car.
I got him back into his car, had an opening in traffic and got his car, which had crossed the grassy medium and was facing WESTBOUND in the eastbound lane, I then drove it across the eastbound lanes and then parked it on the shoulder of the east bound side.
I had called my wife when we stopped and she had called the Kansas Highway patrol out of Hayes, Ks, which we had just gone through.
It wasn't two minutes when a KS H P trooper pulled in. I gave him the guys keys, the guys drivers license, and told him what I had done. The guy had either gotten dehydrated or perhaps heat exhaustion. But I turned him over to the trooper.
THAT'S the last instance before this one.
One of my first experiences was when I was working for Bechtel. I was part of the 'emergency response team' so when we had a bomb threat and they evacuated the building, I and two other team members rerouted street traffic away from the building, and got our employees vehicles out of the building as quickly as we could.
So yeah, if you are willing to risk your life, standing in traffic to stop a flow of traffic for what ever reason, MOST FOLKS will give the right of way.
I've done this when I find stray dogs on the street. I carry a small bag of broken dog biscuits that I use to get them to come to me. BUT YOU GOTTA KEEP THEM FROM BEING KILLED before you can do that. And I've stopped three lanes of 6th ave one morning to wrangle up two ST. Bernards. The funny part was two other people had stopped, gotten out of their cars and HELPED me round them up and once we had hold of them we immediately got the traffic rolling.
Total time elapsed was LESS than two minutes. And I always gets numerous thumbs up. Plus, I have been know to put MY VEHICLE behind a broken down vehicle - but I keep mine eight or ten car lengths back. That gives room for what ever vehicle comes up to help. I get out of my truck and wave traffic around the broken down truck.
I've been doing this my whole life. When you are doing the right thing, most folks do NOT mind. And those that do? Well, they are actually going to dislike ANYBODY who is willing to help those who need it.
N,
You DID actually click on the link and LOOK at my M1009? I also have both the 'Convoy Ahead' or 'Convoy Approaching' signs that I ALWAYS run on or the other.
I've had NUMEROUS conversations with LEO's around Colorado about this subject. NOT ONE agrees with you. Think about it this way. ANYBODY DOES SOMETHING STUPID AND HITS A DEUCE? THEY ARE GONNA AT LEAST HAVE A BROKEN VEHICLE. They might need medical assistance.
We avoid ALL of this buy US controlling the flow of traffic so we impact it as little as we can. But we do this only when we are going to or from a parade. Which means we are doing something for the public to learn yet again and see the big green iron rolling proud.
I stopped traffic on Saturday because we had been stopped by a train. Then the ongoing traffic came across to the light and then came to a halt waiting for the next light to go green. But they BLOCKED THE INTERSECTION and kept us from turning left and NOBODY was making room. So I resolved that and we rolled through and they closed up and STILL didn't go anywhere.
I always love when a LEO says 'that's not right'...
REALLY?
You would rather us endanger numerous motorist by spreading out 15 - 25 vehicles through stop and go traffic. That's just stupid. When we run convoy we are tight. It's difficult for people to pass us on two lane highways BECAUSE we run so tight. No we're not fast, but we get the job done.