October 2006 Newsletter
The 4-Way Stop Paradox
One of the great mysteries of life involves a simple traffic controlling invention called “The 4-Way Stop”. This type of intersection is apparently sooooo confusing that literally generations of us professional types simply fail to grasp a concept as easy as “righty tighty- lefty loosey”.
I personally have a recurring nightmare in which I (and my vehicle) are horrendously injured at a 4-way stop by a Suburban driving, cell-phone talking Soccer Mom, who is in her opinion the actual Queen of the road. This dream is even more specific than that, it happens to me at Pleasant Grove Main and Center at 7:45 am almost every morning!
To be honest 4-way stops as a concept are a simple thing. Yield to the obvious first vehicle arriving at the intersection – or to the vehicle on the right. Any Questions?
The problems seem to start with the accompanying “complications” that we encounter at an intersection. The most common complication consists of another car at the intersection at the same time. Face it, if you’re there by yourself it’s really pretty easy. If not, you probably have other problems that are beyond my qualifications. So, another car gets there at (or about) the exact same time as you do. Your job is to decide who is on the right of whom. You then somehow need to form an unwritten agreement with the other driver across the space of the intersection that, a-“I’m going first” or b- “You go ahead.”
This solution becomes even more confusing with the addition of a third, and fourth vehicle, this has been described as “If it’s your turn go. If not, try to imagine what can go wrong if you do go, and then go if you didn’t just imagine your own death!” In reality, the same observation and telepathic communication normally serve to solve the problem and keep most accidents below the personal injury level.
Next we can throw in the whole idea of turning left at the intersection. Turning left is bound to disrupt the normally graceful ballet of traffic flow at our hypothetical intersection. Turning left in Utah is normally done in one of three ways. Stop, signal and turn. Stop, don’t signal and turn, and my personal favorite… stop, signal one way, and turn the other. The common perpetrators of bad left turns seem to be the dominant male drivers among us. They are going to go, simply because they can. All mortals should be watching them, should anticipate and applaud their next move, and should be able to tell that they always have the right to go first because their Hummer/Stroker/Duramax/Ram, (you all know this guy), is bigger and badder than whatever inferior item of engineering you are driving.
The same idea of waiting for your time to go applies to left turns, both yours, and those of other vehicles. When making a left turn at a 4-way stop you can’t have enough sets of eyes. Watch everyone to make sure they know what you’re doing and use your signal! It’s that little lever of the left side of your steering column that sometimes stays on and makes that annoying noise for 75 miles after you use it to get on the freeway!
There are at least two other distractions which occur regularly at 4-way stops but space simply doesn’t allow us to properly address them here. They are Pedestrians (think…always have the right of way,) and Old People, (think of how confusing the intersection is for you and then give them a break. These things are scarier than they were in 1945.)
The paradox of the 4 way stop can be solved. It simply takes patience, observation skills (put away the cell phone, the electric shaver and the eye-liner) and courtesy. The extra 3 seconds you make cutting someone off really isn’t worth it.
The last thing to address is this. When you’re driving… just drive. It’s not a time to multi-task And remember , Obscene gestures, though commonly given, are never really socially acceptable. In a 4 way stop situation , at least in my case, they result in a demonstration of the beauty of the wonderful invention called the un-marked police car!
Captain Cody Cullimore
Pleasant Grove/Lindon Police Department
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