Supporters of the Idaho Stop Law note that laws are enacted to
meet a need; in the case of stop signs and stop lights, the
regulation of traffic through intersections. Additionally, laws
can and do change over the years. Prohibition (the banning of
the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol) became the
law in the United States in 1919 by way of the Eighteenth
Amendment to the US Constitution. It was repealed 14 years later
by the passing of the Twenty-first Amendment. Prohibition didn’t
mean that people stopped drinking; it only meant that it became
an illegal activity to do so. The ban on drinking helped to grow
the reach and influence of organized crime, and it became
apparent that simply legislating a ban on drinking would not
stop the activity. Consider the fact that stop signs first
appeared in the United States in 1915, more than 20 years after
the introduction of the automobile. Were they introduced because
horses had suddenly become faster or bicycles too numerous? (The
bike boom of the 1890’s