stop signs (red light, brakes, truck, engine)

[saytendedebel]

I firmly believe that 95% of all stop signs could be changed to yield sign. How many times have you approached an intersection where you can see for miles and there is no other traffic but you?? You could go thru with complete safety. But that little piece of metal says no. So you come to a complete stop, check to see if traffic is coming (it's not) and proceed thru.
Another senario - it's late at night, the roads are dark, you're the only vehicle. Again you must come to a complete stop rather than just going thru. Think how much gas is wasted this way. Most stop signs could be changed to yield and greatly improve traffic flow. We all yield at yield signs now so what's the difference?

Another pet peeve is four way stops. They are a complete waste of time. Have the traffic departments figure out which direction has the most traffic and give this way the right of way. Let the lesser amount of cars stop. Eliminates half the stop & greatly improves gas millage.

[Lamborgotti]

Add stoplights to the mix. They're terribly inefficient and unnecessary most of the time. On minor roads, and especially off peak hours, a switch to flashing yellow would make a lot of sense.

One thing I definitely miss about Australia is the lack of stop signs & lights. They utilize mini roundabouts in their place, and while they are also unnecessary at times, and do get a bit annoying, they greatly improve traffic flow.

[Drover]

When it comes to traffic engineering & flow management, little aggravates me more than sitting at a red light waiting for nothing and nobody. I became particularly sensitive to this when it would take me 20 minutes to drive 4 miles at 3 in the morning because of all the goddamned stoplights around here. I've lived in other cities where they switch them to flashing yellows or flashing four-way reds at intersections of two major arteries at about 10pm or so and it drives me bonkers that they don't do it here.

It's also annoying to have four-way stops at every block on the residential side streets but I can understand why they do it; otherwise people would go blowing down the side streets as an alternative to congested arteries and they need to do something to slow people down.

[NewHavensFinest]

I always believed that some red lights should be treated as stop signs. Sometimes they change on you for no reason and make you sit there for 5 minutes. Sometimes its late at night and they arent automated to blink.


Inefficient traffic signs/lights make a ton of waste for not just the drivers.



But I know why a lot of this hasnt changed yet, just look at most of the driving society. Making some stop signs into yield signs will probably triple car accident deaths...sad but probably true

[crestliner]

Because so many people get killed because they do not stop at stop signs I cant see where changing them would do anything but increase the deaths overall

[StealthRabbit]

Be careful what you wish for... You will end up with a ROTARY

More accidents by far, but they claim they are LOW SPEED accidents

They are really fun when placed one after another with BIG pretty flower pots, and YOU are stuck driving a set of *California Doubles through them. (crunch).

(40' trailer + 28' pup)

Rotaries are even more fun when you drive off the ferry in UK with your Euro car, and all the sudden going counter clockwise in FAR lane.

Stop signs... (I cannot COUNT the number of times I've been stopped for a 'rolling-stop', fortunately NEVER cited (yet).) I just have a bad habit of NEVER wanting to use my clutch, in car / truck and never putting my foot down on motorcycle.

Clutches will only go in and out SO many times in their life... THEN something will break!!! I have MANY with over 300k, and still very little disc wear.

[Charles22]

Stop signs are job creators. Who do you think changes your brakes/clutch/transmission?

[Drover]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

Be careful what you wish for... You will end up with a ROTARY

Give me a properly engineered roundabout any day over a traffic control device that requires at least half the approaching traffic to come to a complete stop.

[Billy_J]

Most laws and rules are created... Not for what most people do, rather for what that 1 person in 1,000 or 1 person in 10,000 does.

So I guess the question is: What was it like before there were stop signs and what did some people do to make them put up the stop signs in the first place?

Understand that there are many different people driving...
Young people and it is their first driving lesson.
Old people who can't see well.
People who drive too fast - faster than the speed limit.
People who drive too slow.
People in big trucks which can't stop quickly.
People in small cars.
People in shiny black cars which blend into wet pavement and might not be seen easily.
Small children playing in the area.

And different sun and weather conditions at different times...
Ice on the road.
Rain.
Sun shining in driver's faces from one direction at times.
Etc.

I think those stop signs are for when certain drivers and conditions come together at the intersection! Crash! (Needs to be there for ALL situations and drivers.)

[Coldjensens]

When I was a kid, on country roads at night, you would just flick off your lights as you approached the stop sign. This allowed you to determine whether a car was coming from the other direction well before you got to the intersection. It worked fine until one cay i flicked my lights back on just ad the guy going the other way also flicked his back on and we both blasted right through the stop sign, missing each other by inches.