Based on my two experiences with three-way stops last week, I am prepared to suggest that many drivers don’t know what they are.
At a shopping center near my current residence, there is such a stop. One direction of traffic has no stop sign, so it can do what it wants; the other three must stop. Of course that means the cars coming in from the non-stop direction have the right-of-way. Right? Well, sure. I was attempting to drive straight, crossing the non-stop direction. I had to wait quite a while due to traffic but, apparently, that wasn’t good for the guy behind me. He actually tried to go around me (from the left), and turn right – right in front of me.
Just a few days ago, a nearly-identical thing happened. I was on the opposite side of the non-stop direction. I had to stop, of course, and let everyone from the other side go. But then… they started to stop, as if it was a 4-way stop. Which, of course, it wasn’t. I sat there and the first person eventually got it but the second insisted I go. I didn’t. She had the right-of-way, so she went, and the fellow behind her went.
I just don’t get it. Maybe three-way stops are a bad idea, though – it seems like people don’t understand it.
Posted in Cars