TED Talks - a new idea for a road sign
Fifty percent of traffic accidents happen at intersections. Gary Lauder shares his idea for helping drivers move along smoothly: a new traffic sign that combines the properties of “Stop” and “Yield” — and asks drivers to be polite.
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Wow, I never took into account how much money a poorly designed junction can cost. Makes me glad that you can’t turn a corner in the UK without seeing a roundabout!
The speaker makes a good point, that traffic volumes on the main road at some intersections may be so high that a yield sign on the side road would result in excessive backups, but the traffic on the cross road is too low to justify making traffic on all legs of the intersection stop. I think what he is proposing is what I would call a “all-way yield.” It would work similar to an “all-way stop” in the US, except that cars would not be required to come to a complete stop before proceeding through the intersection. Traffic on each leg would slow down, and if there is traffic on another leg, the first driver to enter the intersection would have priority. You could also think of it as a roundabout without the circular configuration or center island. I think his proposed design is somewhat hideous, but I suspect he was not seriously proposing that specific design. We identify all-way stops in the US through a small supplemental plate reading “all-way” below the stop sign, and that method could also be used for an all-way yield. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that, though. I don’t like the use of the all-way stop plate, because I believe it is too-easily overlooked, and the assembly looks too much like an ordinary stop sign. Obviously, a driver who is unclear about whether cross-traffic will stop or not could cause an accident if he assumes wrong. The fact that FHWA sanctions the use of supplemental plates for stop signs reading “Cross traffic does not stop” demonstrates this is a real problem. I would instead like to see a design for an all-way stop sign that is visually related but clearly distinct from a standard stop sign.