On my first evening in California, I was stopped by a police car – or highway patrol car, or whatever – for shooting a stop sign. But as John Staddon observes in The Atlantic Monthly,
Consider the stop sign. It seems innocuous enough; we do need to stop from time to time. But think about how the signs are actually set up and used. For one thing, there’s the placement of the signs—off to the side of the road, often amid trees, parked cars, and other road signs; rarely right in front of the driver, where he or she should be looking.
Then there’s the sheer number of them. They sit at almost every intersection in most American neighborhoods. In some, every intersection seems to have a four-way stop. Stop signs are costly to drivers and bad for the environment: stop/start driving uses more gas, and vehicles pollute most when starting up from rest. More to the point, however, the overabundance of stop signs teaches drivers to be less observant of cross traffic and to exercise less judgment when driving—instead, they look for signs and drive according to what the signs tell them to do.
The four-way stop deserves special recognition as a masterpiece of counterproductive public-safety efforts.
John Staddon, Distracting Miss Daisy, The Atlantic Monthly
So soon I’ll be driving again in the US, around Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. I’ll try to remember not to overtake yellow buses, I’ll try to bear the crawling overtake as two lanes of cars set their cruise control speeds only the tiniest fraction apart, I’ll curse the absence of roundabout and marvel at the lights strung across intersections on crossroads miles from anywhere. and I hope i wont be adding to the stats that make the US a considerably more dangerous place to drive.
it is just what you are used to. I came to the USA on 14th June 2008 and it was the first time driving in the USA. So you need to have more awareness for the unusual. First rule: in the beginning, drive 5-10% slower as the signs tell you. Yes, everyone overtakes you. But is that dangerous? At these low speeds? I am used to drive 180-240km/h and not 65mph on the most! And then the speed in Washington: 25mph! Also the Americans have patience. So dangerous is only the one ignoring that he/she is in another country with other rules.
Wim-Jan
24 Jun 08 at 12:53 am
I’ve driven in Washington (DC) too – Can’t remember the speeds being as low as that but I did see a crash just outside Union Station on a Sunday morning.
David
24 Jun 08 at 12:33 pm
Once stopped for jumping a Red outside Stanford University on El Camino Real. I tried to explain to the Officer my 2 middle Scottish names in addition to first and last. Exasperated by the heat I got the fatal “ya can tell it to the Judge in the morning”
My colleagues at Stanford explained I must write to the Court explaining I was avoiding danger jumping the Red.
Which was true as I was followed by a teen blonde in a chevy 56 coupe. I could not rely on her stoppin if I did. I worked!
On another occasion I overtook a yellow school bus parked in front of a fire Engine. This give new meaning to double jeopardy. I tried the same excuse and after 6 months got an apology
alimac
8 Jul 08 at 1:14 pm