Is it separate from the main travel lane? From what I see on the overhead and the street view, it looks like there is enough space for two lanes, but the lane closest to the curb is separated from the travel lane by a shoulder stripe. It looks like the shoulder carries down through the next several blocks, but the stripe is an indicator that the shoulder is not for travel.
You’d expect to see a broken line to indicate two lanes of traffic in the same direction, but there’s not one present.
I would agree with needscoffee that the intersection is severely underdocumented. Caution should be exercised by both the cross-traffic heading left-to-right and the right-turner using the right-turn curve.
You’re right. The lane is completely covered by trees in the small image in the OP and you need to go to Google Maps to see it. So the right turning cars are merging into crossing traffic.
Seems to me the stop sign is where it is due to the “island” not being raised. Nobody is going to plunk a stop sign in the middle of the pavement - even in Virginia. the stop sign is far back from the stop line otherwise it would be half-way around the corner.
I take the opposite view, is that the stop sign indicates “stop at the marked line ahead” and the lack of a line in the turn lane indicates “yield” not “stop”. All 4 directions, the stop line is marked.
I spot-checked my general area on Google Maps and all the curbed island I could find had yield signs for the turns unless there was a merge lane; but signpost inside the island, so the same logic applies, no sign goes “in” the island if there’s no curbing. I suppose putting it on the grass past the sidewalk (on the passenger side) would make it harder for drivers to see and hardly worth the trouble.
I assume this turn gets the special island treatment because it’s by far the most common right turn in terms of traffic volume?
Not sure which sign you mean but all four approaches have “STOP 4-WAY” signs.
That’s possible. That is not evident at most times, although the busiest time for this intersection is morning rush hour and I have only been through there a couple of times at that time of day.
I suspect the designer of the intersection intended for people to yield but the actual legal requirement is stop at the stop sign. It’s a badly designed intersection.
There doesn’t have to be a stop line for their to be a requirement to stop at a stop sign. I was taught to stop before all of the the intersection, the crosswalk, the stop line, and the stop sign, whichever comes first. In some states, they don’t make you stop before the stop sign, but you still stop before the other three. @ski found the Virginia code, and it looks like stopping before the stop sign isn’t necessary there.
This is the way it’s usually done so everyone knows what to expect.
The convention is also to put a yield sign to the right of the channelized lane. See p.39 of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (p. 79 on the PDF). This is a federal manual and states don’t have to adopt it but most have in some form or another.
It might be because there is enough left-turning traffic from that side that it could back up people making a right turn onto that road.
A quick informal survey of turn islands (with curbs) around me shows the yield sign consistently on the island close to the end of the island and obviously beside turn lane, not the main street (which has a stop sign or traffic light), on the driver’s side, probably where it’s more visible. YMMV.
OK, I thought putting the sign in the middle of flat pavement was stupid. Apparently, that is not an impediment for some municipal departments.
Given the location of the 4-way stop sign, and the fact that it’s a 4-way stop, I would say that cars turning right would have to stop. I would say that the painted line indicates that cars turning right may go to the far right to pass a car in the lane, but if they do so, they must turn. Maybe only one of the directions has the triangle because that’s the only road wide enough there to allow two cars abreast, one that’s turning.