Stupid Driver Stories

A roundabout is a much more elegant solution than a 4 way stop, if done properly, of course.
 
Cowboy said:
We don't euhrmm....we don't do all way stops, ever.

On small roads right of way applies for everone coming from the right (left in UK and IRL) , and on bigger roads (marked with a sign) the biggest road always has priority if there are no lights/roundabout, never a 4 way stop (atleast that I have seen)
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There's a four way stop in my little city of 50 000! Noone likes it, the residents complain about it because of the noise it generates (close to the bus terminal, accelerating buses are loud, especially at night) and it annoys drivers because it's so slow compared to a roundabout. Not enough space to make a roundabout that's big enough for buses otherwise it'd been replaced long ago.
 
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AiR said:
There's a four way stop in my little city of 50 000! Noone likes it, the residents complain about it because of the noise it generates (close to the bus terminal, accelerating buses are loud, especially at night) and it annoys drivers because it's so slow compared to a roundabout.
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Count on Sweden..............:p
 
It was a usual intersection when I was younger but I think someone crashed and they put up stop signs and speed bumps to demonstrate action.
 
Cowboy said:
We don't euhrmm....we don't do all way stops, ever.

On small roads right of way applies for everone coming from the right (left in UK and IRL) , and on bigger roads (marked with a sign) the biggest road always has priority if there are no lights/roundabout, never a 4 way stop (atleast that I have seen)
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Then I would think that the former would work much better in this particular case.
A roundabout is a much more elegant solution than a 4 way stop, if done properly, of course.
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Not on a small road like the one shown. It would take longer to go around a roundabout if you want to turn right then it would to stop at an all way for a second and just go.

I like the way Cowboy outlined better. Traffic from the right has the right of way, the traffic is more than light enough on this intersection to allow for that.
 
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AiR said:
It was a usual intersection when I was younger but I think someone crashed and they put up stop signs and speed bumps to demonstrate action.
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Stop signs yes, but why 4? I just don't see the use in everyone stopping, just leave one road free and put 2 on the sidestreets, or make it a right of way from the right.....works wonders when used properly.
 
prizrak said:
Then I would think that the former would work much better in this particular case.

Not on a small road like the one shown. It would take longer to go around a roundabout if you want to turn right then it would to stop at an all way for a second and just go.

I like the way Cowboy outlined better. Traffic from the right has the right of way, the traffic is more than light enough on this intersection to allow for that.
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But then 4 people arrive at the same time and nobody knows what to do. The time wasted waiting for someone to make the first move is a lot shorter than the few seconds more it takes to drive around the circle than by just cutting left. And I do mean seconds.
 
Cowboy said:
Stop signs yes, but why 4? I just don't see the use in everyone stopping, just leave one road free and put 2 on the sidestreets, or make it a right of way from the right.....works wonders when used properly.
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I agree almost any solution is better than the current one. I can see why they don't build a roundabout, not enough space, putting traffic lights in would be awfully expensive and not really better, but changing signs shouldnt be too hard or expensive. It's not the main road anymore so it's not a major inconvenience, but it is awkward having everyone to come to a full stop for no apparent reason. Of course the traffic office is breaking their budget again this year having to buy extra salt and manpower to remove snow so it's unlikely they'll have the energy to care about this intersection for quite some time. Somewhere an accountant forgot that it can get quite cold here...

Roundabouts, simply awesome.
 
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Easiest way would be to downgrade one road and just have stops signs for that.
 
IceBone said:
But then 4 people arrive at the same time and nobody knows what to do. The time wasted waiting for someone to make the first move is a lot shorter than the few seconds more it takes to drive around the circle than by just cutting left. And I do mean seconds.
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In case of all 4 vehicles arriving at the same time (extremely rare even in traffic heavy Brooklyn btw) traffic from the right has the right of way. Personally I wait 3 seconds and go, if you can't negotiate a 4 way stop you should not be allowed behind the wheel. Or go with Cowboy's solution, stop signs on one street and none on the other. Roundabouts work well with heavy traffic as it allows for better and smoother flow but with such light traffic...
 
stop signs - some people treat them as give way signs, other people don't slow down at all through them

if i stopped at a stop sign on the way to work and watched for 10 mins, i would fill up an a4 piece of paper tallying them all up
 
This morning on our commute to Pitt, I was being tailed by a white frist generation Kia Optima. Road conditions weren't all that great (thin film of snow on the roads with some patches of ice here and there). Coming up to the intersection of Butler street and Washington Boulevard, most of the traffic turns right onto Washington. The Scion xB that's ahead of us starts braking, even though there's a sign that says "keep moving". As I'm slowing down, I suddenly hear the unmistakable sound of a car skidding on the snow. I look in the mirror to see the driver of the tailgating Kia panicking because she hit a small patch of ice and was about to rear-end me. I accelerated a bit to give her some extra room. She recovered. After that close call, she finally figured that tailgating was a terrible idea and stayed a good 4-car-lengths behind everyone for the rest of the journey.

Lesson learned.

On a sort of off-topic note, our commute this morning ended poorly when we parked the car and discovered the rear-left tire was flat. We figured it happened sometime while we were parking the car, because I didn't feel anything unusual while on the road. Had to run to classes, though, so it's still not fixed.
 
Leadfoot866 said:
This morning on our commute to Pitt, I was being tailed by a white frist generation Kia Optima. Road conditions weren't all that great (thin film of snow on the roads with some patches of ice here and there). Coming up to the intersection of Butler street and Washington Boulevard, most of the traffic turns right onto Washington. The Scion xB that's ahead of us starts braking, even though there's a sign that says "keep moving". As I'm slowing down, I suddenly hear the unmistakable sound of a car skidding on the snow. I look in the mirror to see the driver of the tailgating Kia panicking because she hit a small patch of ice and was about to rear-end me. I accelerated a bit to give her some extra room. She recovered. After that close call, she finally figured that tailgating was a terrible idea and stayed a good 4-car-lengths behind everyone for the rest of the journey.

Lesson learned.

On a sort of off-topic note, our commute this morning ended poorly when we parked the car and discovered the rear-left tire was flat. We figured it happened sometime while we were parking the car, because I didn't feel anything unusual while on the road. Had to run to classes, though, so it's still not fixed.
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Could have a nail or something in it. It can take a while for the tire to lose pressure. I had a similar situation where I couldn't tell that something was wrong before I got off the highway since tire cooled down and pressure dropped there was a noticeable change in the car's performance. Back on the highway it wasn't nearly as obvious (had to get on and off on before I could fix it so I know that I had the nail in it before hand).
 
ashspet said:
This is a roundabout near my local shops. There's enough of a barrier to stop cars cutting straight though the intersection, but also enables the big semi trailers to go straight through (and most people in SUVs, 4WDs do the same).

https://pic.armedcats.net/a/as/ashspet/2011/01/14/roundabout.jpg
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That just leaves the little problem with turning left with a trailer. As a general rule, when coming up on some genius little thing like this driving one, you ALWAYS have to turn left. Always.
 
prizrak said:
Could have a nail or something in it. It can take a while for the tire to lose pressure. I had a similar situation where I couldn't tell that something was wrong before I got off the highway since tire cooled down and pressure dropped there was a noticeable change in the car's performance. Back on the highway it wasn't nearly as obvious (had to get on and off on before I could fix it so I know that I had the nail in it before hand).
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That's exactly what it was: there's a screw in it. We'll have the local garage plug it on Monday.
 
EyeMWing said:
You know what I meant.
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:lmao:

But the main through road is the one the big trucks etc use, they don't go into the side roads. And it's a replacement for the original roundabout that was there with a higher curb that ended up being decimated in the first week of operation.
 
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