I think this is the right thread. Here goes;
Is there an intersection in your area where people (yourself included) tend to stop, although there’s no stop sign there? We have one, and I can;t for the life of me figure out what the deal is. I’m used to it now, but I still feel a mild urge to hit the brakes when I approach. Thing is, a lot of people do the same. I pulled over for a few minutes once to watch, and 25 - 30% of drivers at least slowed to a crawl (which is how we normally stop around here), and many came to a complete stop then sat there for a sec looking stupified. That’s how I felt the times I stopped. Stupified.
Not only that, but people in the opposing direction stop at their sign, then start to pull out as though at a four-way stop.
I’ve encountered this situation before, too.
Anyone else. Is this a known phenomenon.
What causes it?
A couple of ideas.
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Is the road generally a secondary road that normally has stop signs at other intersections along its length? I sometimes have the opposite trouble with a road which has right of way through all its intersections but one, where I’ll often be braking late in a panic.
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The intersection has poor visibility and the stop signs for the other road are not obvious to the drivers with right of way, so they stop out of a natural sense of caution.
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It’s like sheep jumping over imaginary fences. Someone saw a car stop in front of them, assumed there was a stop sign and stopped, the following car saw the second car stop and also stopped etc. This phenomena could carry on for a long time with enough traffic.
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A combination of all of the above.
Hmmm. Good points, Ray. I shall check those possibilities on the morn.
And report back.
I did that once. Cruising along a straight street (my first time there), through five or six intersections where I had right of way, and next thing a van cuts across my path out of a side street, and I’m standing on the brakes, wheels locked, smoking tyres…
I scream, “You fucking ARSEHOLE!”
The driver looks at me oddly.
I look to the left, and there’s a stop sign hidden behind a tree (which had also hidden the van from my view). The white stop line was faded and I was driving into the afternoon sun. Still, I felt like a complete prat.
Getting back to the OP, there’s a two way stop near my house where the right of way was reversed about a year and a half ago. It still causes confusion.
I lived at such an intersection for about 15 years. At the corner of 9th Street and Princeton Avenue in Springfield, IL.
9th Street (north-south) did not have a stop sign. Princeton (east-west) did. Each day, dozens of cars travelling on 9th street would stop at the intersection.
Wait a minute. Sheep jump over imaginary fences? How cute is that? [/sheepish hijack]
Just thinking about it makes me sleepy…
I’ve seen instances in small towns or neighborhoods where a stop sign used to be there, but the city decided it wasn’t needed and removed it. People out of habit, who’ve lived in the area for years will still stop at that point out of old habit.
There’s one near where I work. Two lane road – I have to take a left onto an intersecting road. There’s no stop sign on the road I’m coming from, but oncoming cars will almost always stop and wait for me to turn. This baffles and infuriates me because they’ll stop even if there are no cars behind them, so it takes longer to straighten out the right of way issues than it would if they had just driven by.
I checked out ray’s ideas. In order;
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It’s just a regular residential street, but slightly wider than some. There are six intersections which go: 4 way, 4 way, 4 way, no stop, 4 way, signal. Could be somethiong there?
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No problems with visibility at any intersection from any direction.
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Possiblility for #1. Habituation?
Today I noticed that the cross-street at this intersection is somewhat wider than the others. That could be a factor. We react so much to cues that it’s hard to sort out what might make people react in this way. Our over-riding instinct is to not stop. ever, which explains why we fudge normal stops (the famous “California” stop). People stop more completely there than at “real” stop signs.