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I lived in the United Kingdom for a little while and one of the things I loved about the country was the lack of stop signs. I think I only saw two the whole time I was in the country. In the UK, yield signs are the norm along with roundabouts.
...about the annual fuel cost associated with adding stop signs at an intersection.
It seems like common sense that reducing stop and go driving by replacing many stop signs with yield signs would save millions of gallons of fuel each year.
Some major problems are:
Educating the public to obey a yield sign.
Overcome are the loss of taxes from the reduced fuel use
Loss of police revenue from traffic fines of people doing a slow-and-go through stop signs (treating them like yield signs already).
Roundabouts are another brilliant idea, but it seems Americans have a very hard time learning how to properly use them. There are several article on the 'net about increased accidents in roundabouts (traffic circles).
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Here roundabouts are all the rage, and they waste more fuel than stop signs. people going on the busier street just keep going, so they save fuel by not stopping, but people trying to enter from the cross street have to wait for 5-10 cars before they can get in, wasting fuel. Even so, it's not enough to be concerned about when you compare the fuel waste to the safety benefits of a stop sign over a yield sign on busy intersections. The safest and most economical would be signal lights,
or stop signs, but to require all vehicles to have auto-stop.
With better driver training, a lot of traffic problems would be reduced. Quite a while ago, driver training got shifted from an elective in the education system to the private sector. As with many things, money started driving the results and driving school mills became the solution, and the problem.
Nowadays in some and maybe lots of cities, red light runners are a real threat to your safety. There is little defense against the red light runner or the driver to blasts though stop signs because you can't see it coming. By the time you see it, you're going to get plowed.
I think that if more drivers had better driver education, the resulting fuel savings might be significant. I remember my driver instructor making sure students knew how to merge without causing people to jam on their brakes, swerve into other lanes and cause congestion. The more smooth and fluid the road traffic becomes the less fuel is used by the cars.
So often these days, parents aren't teaching their kids how to drive properly, instead leaving it to some pay by the hour instructor who just wants to get as many kids through the course as possible.
Eliminate stop signs to save fuel? Sure, so long as some effort is put into making better drivers. Otherwise I think it creates more hazards.
Most small town and some larger city traffic problems and cost related to them could easily be eradicated here in the US by replacing 3 or 4 way stops and many traffic lights with modern roundabouts.
I used to hate the old designs, but after spending a year in Wisconsin where they are up to date and common I got used to roundabouts and love using them instead of stop signs and traffic lights.
The only downside I see to them is the cost of ripping out intersections to put in the "circle." Part of this cost however can be made up from the saving in electricity and maintenance for lighted traffic control devices. The savings for society in wasted gas and backups is tremendous.
The only other problem -- which can be easily handled -- is to make allowances to long semi-trailer.
I personally would not want to see stop signs in most areas replaced by yields because plenty of people will just plow right through them. You cannot plow through a modern roundabout.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemlock140
...but people trying to enter from the cross street have to wait for 5-10 cars before they can get in, wasting fuel. Even so, it's not enough to be concerned about when you compare the fuel waste to the safety benefits of a stop sign over a yield sign on busy intersections
I personally have not seen that roundabouts waste anywhere near as much fuel as a traffic light.
Funny, my husband grew up in England, and he loves roundabouts, too. What he doesn't love is that Americans have no idea how to use them, and they're always situated in affluent areas with little traffic, where they are really of no benefit.
Visited Sacramento, Ca and they put in round abouts in the roads paralleling busy avenues. In some brilliant scheme of genius they then posted speed limit signs just before the round abouts:
17 mpg.
???
17? Not 15 or some other easy to read speed but 17?
I don't know how you would they work in our area. Newer places have been putting them in but you couldn't put them up in older areas. Yield signs would be a waste. You may as well stop. You hit an intersection and all 4 corners have 5 or more cars, who gets to go first? What about slower times when only a few cars are out? Wouldn't a round about slow you down?
Of course it wouldn't work everywhere, but I've see hundreds of intersections with stop signs where as you approach the intersection at 10 or so miles per hour, you can see that there's no one coming for a quarter mile or more. Yet you must stop. Waste of gas (stop and go) and brakes.
Of course it wouldn't work everywhere, but I've see hundreds of intersections with stop signs where as you approach the intersection at 10 or so miles per hour, you can see that there's no one coming for a quarter mile or more. Yet you must stop. Waste of gas (stop and go) and brakes.
Many of our intersections in town have homes on them with trees and it would be hard to see if anyone was coming. I am not against it in places that it may work.
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