Hello, Dopers. I’ve watched the board for a long time now, and just now decided to join. So for my first post I have a question that’s been bugging me for a while. I live in south central PA, and on my way home at night I always go past a certainly odd intersection. It’s on an old road right off the Susquehanna river…going into a “T” intersection.
So say your coming into this T intersection from the south lets say(assuming your looking at a letter “T” and the bottom is south, top is north, left is west…etc.)
And while entering from the south there is no stop sign, also entering from the east goin west or south there is no stop sign. Is this an illegal intersection? Or am I wrong in thinking someone heading East-to-West wouldnt stop and at the same time drivers goin South-to-West, also would not stop. Are these types of intersections normal…or very rare, and should somehting be done about it?
Thanks
Of course on my first post I just had to make a spelling error. :smack:
Not every intersection has to have a stop sign. In fact most don’t (especially in residential areas). If there is no stop sign or signal, you need to exercise caution and yield to the person who gets to the intersection before you do. If one road is a major thoroughfare, that road has precedence over the minor road.
State and local laws may vary, but that’s how it works in most places.
There’s an intersection like that around here:
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|*
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Where == and || are major streets entering the intersection from the north and east, and | is a minor street entering from the south. You only face a stop sign (*) if you’re coming from the south. The idea is that the intersecting major streets are supposed to act like one big continuous road that just happens to curve, and this is indicated by a sign saying “<-- ARTERIAL” when you approach from the north.
In California that would be referred to as an uncontrolled intersection. Uncontrolled intersections have a speed limit of 15 mph. Not illegal at all. Where I grew up there was a 6 point uncontrolled intersection.
Laws in your state may vary.
I’ll add, that as one approaches, the law says to yeild to your right. So, the driver moving north, stops for the driver going west.
Uncontrolled intersections have different laws governing their use in different places. Sometimes this can make life interesting.
In New Zealand, for example, the rule it to “yield to the right” - any car to your right has right of way over you - no matter who gets to the junction first.
In Australia, however, the yield right rule is correct in most situations, but at a T junction, the people on the “Stem” of the T must yield to anybody on the other road, no matter where they are coming from.
As there are a reasonable number of NZ’ers driving in Australia and vice-versa this adds a certain thrill to such intersections.
They’re over here in York County, too. PENNDOT is saving money on not installing stopsigns. 
I think there’s an addition rule besides “yield to the vehicle to your right” that traffic going straight has the right of way over traffic that’s turning. Hence the stop sign in MR2001’s post is really necessary.
OK but how do you know that you are at an uncontrolled intersection? You can’t usually tell if the other road doesn’t have a stop sign.
danceswithcats The intersection I’m referring to is also in York county. Maybe you know of it…Codorus Furnace Road. Anyway this intersection has no stop signs and no big yellow “curve ahead” signs anywhere, indicating the road at the top of the “T” should be turning onto the “stem” of the “T” anytime. Where might I find the information in my county about the laws that govern these kind of roads? I’m not up on things ya see …If anybody can help me out I’d appreciate it.
You might think it would be in the PA driver’s manual, but I couldn’t find it. There’s a “contact us” link at the top of the page. You might try that.