Hey, if the people in Carbondale, Harrisburg and Metropolis wanted to call it a “Kentucky stop” I would have understood.
And the reason we parked across the lines in parking lots is so we wouldn’t get our fenders dinged by the car next to us. Why is that hard to figure out?
I can cite the term as “Rolling Stop” in popular newspapers as early as 1948.
It’s only natural that it would take on regional names at a later date.
It’s also frequently called a ‘California Stop’ in (at least some parts of) Washington State.
Californian here (former New Englander). What you are referring to is what I’ve already Trademarked as the “Rhode Island Left hand Turn”. It’s a lot more nuanced than you realize:
It starts while the light is still red. You eye the guy going the opposite direction. (If you’re smart, you don’t give yourself away by turning on your left-turn signal.) As you see the cross light turning orange, you start your lunge. Just before the light turns, you head out in front of the other guy. The really cool part is when the guy behind you can stick closely enough to your bumper that he, too, can make it thru the intersection.
I can’t tell you the disapointment I encountered upon moving out here and seeing all the dedicated left-turn lanes. What sport is that?
Me too. I never heard New Orleans Stop when I was down there, but I can believe it. Walking down there is like one big game of chicken.
-Lil
Hm. California Roll = sushi where I live.
haha I just got home tonight from San Francisco, man you couldnt be more right, about 85-90% of residental intersections were unmarked 4 way stops the other 10-15% were unmarked 2 way stops.
in the half mile between the house I was staying at and the nearest main road there were 5 4 way stops even though it was obvious the road I was on was the main drag and only needed one of those 4 ways. chirst I was going batty after a week, I can’t imagine living there full time.
That would get you killed multiple times a day in Miami. It must be something about the low latitudes, because recently turned red lights apparently still have a lot of green in them, as we get three and four cars continuing through a light that has just changed to red.
You should move to Pittsburgh, and encounter the far friendlier “Pittsburgh Left.”
This is where the guy making the left, if he’s the first one at the light, gets waved through by the driver facing him. That way, he doesn’t have to wait past a whole line of cars, and doesn’t hold up traffic behind him.
Wonderful custom, arising from the unique layout of Pittsburgh roads.
I am not completly sure about this but according to my mom, when she lived in california in the early sixties coming to a full stop was not a requirement. Stop signs were treated more like yield signs.
I also seem to remember seeing combination yield/stop signs on u-turn routes.
There is the “New Jersey Left Turn”, which is when you make a right turn into a jughandle so that you can then drive straight through the intersection to make your left. My guess is a long ago govenor had a bad experience in a left turn lane, so he removed them.
All this talk of 4-way stops reminds me of something. I’ve watched a hell of a lot of American movies and TV and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a roundabout or island as they are also known, do they exist in the US?
The only time I recall seeing one is in National Lampoon’s Eurpean Holiday when the Griswolds get stuck endlessly circling one in Paris.
They seem like a pretty good device for bringing multiple roads together in a junction while keeping the traffic faily mobile, so I wonder why they aren’t used; or if they are, why you never see one.
They actually exist in Arlington, Virginia.
Of course, the idiots who installed them didn’t listen to critics who said that they are totally alien to American drivers, and they would cause accidents. And they have.
Some candidates for board have promised to bring back four-way stop signs as a safety improvement.
The Griswolds circle a roundabout in London, in front of Big Ben. Hence the classic line:
“Look kids, Big Ben!”
There is a roundabout not far from where I live, but it’s really useless. It used to be a 2-way stop, with the main road not having to yield at all, and now it’s a roundabout. The thing is, no one ever comes from the intersecting road anyways, so all it does is cause you to have to swerve a little as you go on your way. Totally useless.
Mini-roundabouts are popular in Seattle neighborhoods as an alternative to stop signs. They slow traffic without stopping it completely.
We don’t have full-on roundabouts in Seattle, though. The first one I’ve seen in the state (though I do not guarantee it is the actual first) was recently installed at the intersection of Marvin Road and Pacific Avenue east of Olympia. Personally, I think it’s the perfect solution for that intersection, but it’ll be six months before the locals are completely used to it.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Quint Essence *
**I am not completly sure about this but according to my mom, when she lived in california in the early sixties coming to a full stop was not a requirement. Stop signs were treated more like yield signs.
Reminds me of Norfolk VA. It didn’t take me long to realize that everyone stops at all the yield signs and yields at all the stop signs. Enough to drive a person nuts!
I bit further North around Annapolis MD you can never be going fast enough. You can be doing 80 in the left lane and i guarantee you there will be someone on your bumper wanting to go 85.
Down in Chattanooga TN there’s a very simple rule. NEVER use your turn signals! Only out of towners use them.
You’ll find roudabouts (or “traffic circles” as they’re called in some places) in some older parts of U.S. cities, but they never really caught on here. One of the reasons is because many U.S. cities follow a grid pattern, so that normally two, and only two, streets intersect at any one place – and often at a perpendicular angle to each other.
Because of this rarity, many U.S. drivers are totally confounded by the proper way to enter, navigate and leave a roundabout, either circling around it endlessly, or cutting across multiple lanes when they finally do find the street they were looking for.
I’m sure someone completely used to driving roundabouts would laugh at Cervaise’s comment that some American cities are installing them in an effort to slow traffic, but it’s true.
Another (and more amusing) name for the OP’s rolling stop I’ve heard is the “South Philly Slide.” Sound like a dance step.
In Massachusetts, we have roundabouts-on-steroids that we call “rotaries”. I grew up near Cape Cod, and every summer we would alternately laugh at, and be terrorized by, the way tourists approached these. Some would freeze in blank uncomprehension, and some would charge in without looking for other traffic, some would do a Griswold, and some would speed up and slow down at each exit from the rotary as they tried to figure out where they were supposed to go. Locals prided themselves on their ability to flow into and out of rotaries.
CITE? 
Tallmadge, Ohio centers around a roundabout.
Oh, and my grandfather has heard slowing for stop signs referred to as a “Hillbilly Roll” in West Virginia.