We’ve all seen this happen. Two or more cars approach an intersection, with a stop sign on every entry road.
One car waves to another, the other car waits, the first car starts to go, the second car lurches forward and stops, the first car stops, and then a third and a fourth car reach the intersection.
No one knows who goes first. It’s chaos, with the lurching and the stopping and first one car gives up, then another.
A taco truck approaches, sets up shop. A local DJ turns up the tunes. Soon, it’s a dance party. People get tired, they sleep in their cars. Eventually they admit that they live at this intersection now. They change their postal address. A local government is formed, taxes are levied, and Australia Post celebrates the birth of a new post code.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Four-way stops are easy!*
The Rules:
- Stop
- Give way to traffic entering the intersection
- Proceed when safe.
That’s it.
If someone else stops first, they can go before you, because you haven’t stopped yet. After you stop, give way to them, then go.
If you stop first, you can go first, because they still need to stop.
Canada is awesome.
Canada’s four-way stop signs have little ‘4-WAY’ signs, so everyone knows what’s going on at this intersection.
If more than one car arrives at the same time, we give way to the right.
* This is where it gets sticky in Australia. The rules for giving way are fiendishly complicated, and when more than one car arrives at an intersection at the same time you might need to negotiate.
Hand signals, or a promise that they can go first next time, or (perhaps most likely) a promise to burn their entire family to ash and scatter the ashes in three different oceans if they don’t back the fuck off.
The alternative is accepting defeat, and forwarding your mail.
So come the fuck on, you useless bastards. Stop, give way, go. Fuck is wrong with you.