Decoded! The Four Way Stop
I just had yet another near death experience at the end of the bridge in Perth-Andover the other day. Proper Four –Way and Three-Way Stop Sign Etiquette seems to be completely absent at those dastardly intersections upon many occasions, so we thought we’d present the following guidelines:
A four- way stop intersection is a driver’s IQ test that many drivers manage to fail, and in so doing manage to drive other drivers bonkers, not to mention adding to the general confusion of life.
Fortunately, however, there are some rational guidelines for navigating the four-way or three-way conundrum when multiple cars arrive at the intersection simultaneously.
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Although apparently simple enough in concept…if you stop first, you get to go first…you know, your basic first come, first served rule…there are a number variables at play here which frequently cause utter chaos at a four-way stop.
Aggressive drivers can display their ruthless disregard of manners and social niceties, not to mention the rules of the road, and timid and fearful souls can confound and exasperate everyone by their simple inability to just take their damn turn!
So, who gets to go? Some drivers don’t exactly stop….they just roll on through. Some drivers stop one or two car lengths behind the stop sign before they inch forward. Are they in their proper place in the queue, or not? And, of course, sometimes multiple cars do pull up simultaneously. Driver A now thinks Driver B got there first. B thinks maybe Driver C is first. Driver C seems to have no clue, but this probably happened long before he (or she…this is an equal opportunity column) arrived at the intersection. And driver D is just going to by golly sit there and wait until all danger has passed… which of course infuriates everyone stuck behind him. Or her.
So, who gets to go first? The ginormous SUV that could flatten your car and leave nothing but a grease spot? The reckless looking youths whose thumping stereo bass is making your car vibrate? Or how about the rust bucket which clearly wouldn’t be much affected by another little fender-bender encounter…
All kidding aside, four-way stop protocol is simple and logical. Whichever vehicle stopped first has obvious priority, of course. If two vehicles stop at the same time, priority is given to the vehicle on the right. How do you decide which is the “car on the right” and why do they get to go first? Imagine a four way intersection, where each road segment is two lanes, one lane in each direction. You are driving on the right hand side of the road. If you approach an intersection and there’s a car stopped in the road to your right, if you proceed you will pass directly in front of that car’s bumper. If that driver started moving, or was hit from behind, your car would be hit on the side. Now imagine a car stopped to the left of you. There is a one lane width between your path and the stop line that car is at. If that car moved, or was crashed into from behind, it would have further to travel before hitting your car, thus giving both you and the other driver more time to react.
Now it starts to get a little trickier; If three vehicles stop at the same time, priority is given to the two vehicles going in opposite directions, allowing two cars to go through the intersection at once; a traffic rule that actually expedites progress and efficiency. Imagine that! A rule that is actually useful and expedient!
Now we come to the grand slam, no pun intended, of course. If four cars have stopped simultaneously drivers must use hand gestures (no, no… not that gesture) to communicate.
If there is a queue at the intersection, turn taking rotates to the left and others can move as long as they don’t conflict with the car whose turn it is. It is legal to make a right turn at an all way stop when other cars are in the intersection as long as no other cars are headed for the same turn.
Now you know what you should be doing, and so will also know which drivers to silently curse the next time you navigate a four-way intersection!
Stephanie Kelley
