This morning as I was driving I came across a four way stop as I do every morning. Not thinking much of it I waited for my turn to go. When it came time for me to go I hit my gas and moved forward, but had to slam on my breaks as the car across from me started going. Since I was turning and the other car was going straight we would have crashed into each other if I hadn't stopped. Now that accident would have been considered my fault if I hadn't stopped. As the day progressed I told others about the incident and realized that is not that uncommon for people to not know when their turn is at a four way stop. Is it a fact of not having any patience or not having the knowledge? Many feel uncomfortable proceeding to four way stops because of the fear that someone will refuse to wait and plow through the stop not caring what else is going on. You do not have to be anywhere in that big of a hurry. Even if you are running late you should not be rushing on the road. Wouldn't you rather get to where your going safely and late than risking getting hurt and potentially not getting to your destination at all?
Whose Turn Is It?
By omega512 - Posted on March 19th, 2009
I've actually had quite the opposite experience around here (and because of it, I think the bad experiences are more often a result of people being impatient, as opposed to ignorance of the laws).
Last summer, we had the tail end of Hurricane Ike, which brought a massive wind storm and destroyed power to about half the state. For some, the outage lasted a week or more.
The city I live in has a number of large intersections, many with two to four lanes (or more) on a side. Of course, the rule is that if the traffic light is not working, it works as a four-way stop intersection. I was actually quite amazed at the coordination of that many random people to not only correctly navigate a four-way stop, but to do so with multiple lanes and turn lanes. It wasn't perfect, but it worked and went very smoothly.
I am treated as evil by people who claim that they are being oppressed because they are not allowed to force me to practice what they do. ~D. Dale Gulledge