When 4 way stop signs don't work....

[recycled sixtie]

Please tell your children that drive. It is a good wake up call. Went to take my suv in for snow tires yesterday. I was early so I was about to cross the road in the suv to drive over to look at the used vehicles. There is a 4 way stop sign. I stop at the stop sign and because the road to the right was obscured by parked cars I creep out. From that direction comes a car driven by an older woman(about 60+yo) and goes past my bumper and never even sees or slows down for the stop sign. Close to being t boned on that one.

I told my daughter yesterday to take your time at stop signs.
Take care driving out there!

[Tervuren]

I have to take extra care as cars want to drive right through my rear bumper behind me. Instead of coming to a stop in a normal fashion, I have to take extra long to give them time to notice. I've been rear-ended, so I guess I'm sensitive to it. There are drivers here that will pass you with the oncoming lane if you stop for a stop sign.

[Gogar]

Glad you're ok!

In my neighborhood, the 4-way stops don't work because everyone tries to elevate their smug sense of superiority by waving everyone else through. There's an old man who drives around my neighborhood just to stop at 4-ways and sit there, waving other cars through for hours. At least the bicyclers in their fruity little CocoVita Craisins Tampax amateur racing pelletons blow through the stop signs, like they have somewhere to be.

[Otter74]

I have been honked at for stopping in my car at a stop sign. Ditto bicycle. I have had cars try to pass me *through* the intersection when I stop on my bicycle at a stop sign.



Also, stop for pedestrians! Absolutely freaking nobody here (Chicago) stops for pedestrians, and I hate it. It makes it, obviously, difficult and dangerous to cross the street when I walk places, which I do a lot. I go out of my way to stop for people who are trying to cross the street. I regularly have cars pass me on the right, on the left, wherever they can because DAMMIT I MUST NEVER STOP FOR ANYTHING. Ditto for bicycles, but a bicycle isn't going to kill a ped but a car will. When I stop for peds on my bike I have taken to pulling into the middle of the lane to make it difficult to impossible for cars to not stop for peds.

[Eric 951]

While we are on the subject, please remind them that when a stoplight is inoperable from a storm or other reason that it is to be treated as a 4-way stop. I am constantly amazed at how many folks treat these instances as a "free pass" and simply blow through these intersections, or honk at me for actually stopping.

[J P Stein]

A normal 4 street intersection East of my house has a 3 way stop. Traffic coming from the South does not have to stop. I take a left there and I could have destroyed any/all of my cars there over the years. Folks coming down the hill can't read the warning signs, I guess. Just another little trick some genius traffic engineer laid for us.

[GH85Carrera]

I go through several 4 way stop signs each day. I always assume the other idiots are NOT going to stop. I have avoided many wrecks as some a-hole just rolls through and sometimes does not even slow down.

[Tobra]

I agree wholeheartedly

[VincentVega]

Happened to me while on my bike once. I lucked out and had to pull over for a while, my heartrate must have been 200.

[KFC911]

It's not just 4 ways....I'm just lucky to still be here after a couple of recent "near misses" where idiots just blew through a red light at 60...if I hadn't been alert, t-boned . Saw one idiot blast through one again this morning....and these aren't just after the lights change either (as I've always looked both ways to check). WAKE UP call to me....I trust no green lights anymore.

Put those damn cell phones down people!!!

[Tobra]

Oh, I look both ways at green lights too. That guy would have never gotten me if my line of sight was not blocked by another large vehicle. He was doing better than 50 in a 30, blew a stop sign and fled. Got caught, but did not get sited. If only that old man would have died about a year earlier than he did.

[gacook]

It amazes me how terrible the "average" driver seems to be.

A kid in my town recently got killed because he didn't look before pulling away from a stop sign. Side street that pulls onto a "major" roadway here; traffic on the primary roadway doesn't stop. 17-year-old kid, driving him and his sister to school in the morning; pulled out without paying attention and got t-boned by a bus. He was killed; last I heard, she's still in the hospital. Very sad. He was one of my step-son's best friends, so I felt a bit insensitive when using his mortal mistake as a teaching moment about why it's so important to be completely aware while you're driving.

[dafischer]

Don't get me started on Yield signs. No one seems to have a clue what these mean anymore, except for being a pretty red triangle.

[LakeCleElum]

The signs are working just fine. Blame the drivers, not the signs....

[intakexhaust]

A few weeks back on a perfect sunny day, clear, zero obstruction 4 way STOP INTERSECTION. (BTW: speed zone in this area is 30 MPH.) We're second in line behind another car at the stop line. Both left and right stop are vehicles. And then......... total crazy driver in white work van with ladder rack, sails on thru without stopping. I'm guessing he was doing 50 mph. Just thinking what could've been.

[intakexhaust]

Originally Posted by dafischer

Don't get me started on Yield signs. No one seems to have a clue what these mean anymore, except for being a pretty red triangle.

Or the courtesy and rule 'right of way'

[intakexhaust]

I don't know if this latest stunt is becoming fashionable but recently have noticed at a 4 way stop and I mean STOPPED. You give them some time but then realize something isn't right..... you wait.... and wait more.... and then WTF? They're either on a phone looking at a GPS whatever and don't give a ratz ass who's behind them or waiting at the adjacent roadway.

I've noticed this twice in the last few weeks. Perhaps this is the moron interpretation of new laws texting and driving?!

[masraum]

This guy's a major douche, but there are days when I wish I had his horn.

[ckelly78z]

It's not the 4 way stops that scare me, it's the county roads that only have to stop on the smaller side road, that are blocked by houses or corn fields. This scenario almost killed me 3 years ago when some idiot ran a stop sign into the passenger door of my 83 944. 17 broken bones and a lacerated liver with 5.5 months off work learning to walk again with the new pelvis.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Oh, I look both ways at green lights too. That guy would have never gotten me if my line of sight was not blocked by another large vehicle. He was doing better than 50 in a 30, blew a stop sign and fled. Got caught, but did not get sited. If only that old man would have died about a year earlier than he did.

I am also in this habit, it's saved me from getting t-boned twice recently by speeding red light runners. Being a good driver has little to do with you, it has much more to do with predicting what your fellow morons are going to do before they do it.