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xkcd #2932: Driving PSA
(imgs.xkcd.com)
Alt text:
This PSA brought to you by several would-be assassins who tried to wave me in front of speeding cars in the last month and who will have to try harder next time.
The only two actual rules that apply to four way stops is everyone stops and the first person to start moving gets the right of way. All that crap about the first arrival or person to the right doesn't get applied in real life. They're noble ideas, but just fucking go if no one else is.
What the hell are you talking about? People obey the first to stop first pull out rule all the damn time.
Yes, but there are also a lot of times where they don't in my personal experience. If there's a question about who technically got there first - like two cars approach at roughly the same time - the rules aren't always followed as written by other drivers.
Not in my experience. Of course, as long as people are actually stopping, someone already stopped has an advantage. But that's a difference between East and West Coast US driving. In the East people come to a complete stop before moving again. In the West they'll slow down a lot, nearly stop even. So there's definitely regional characteristics. But the most common law is that of our childhood, possession is 9/10ths of the law.
First to stop is the safer option. I feel that most people around here follow that too.
It also has a rare benefit of seeing the interaction between a majority first-to-goers at a 4 way.
Growing up, there was a four-way stop near my house that one of my friends absolutely hated. It was a pretty busy intersection, and he hated that drivers didn't seem to follow the rules that the person to the right goes first or whatever.
One time when I was driving, he was shocked like "what are you doing!? Its not your turn, you're gonna cause an accident!" when I went. I was like "what are you talking about?" I had driven through that intersection hundreds of times and never really thought about it. When I payed attention to the way the intersection flowed, I figured out the unwritten understanding that I and everyone else approached it with. It was basically just "stop and wait for a car or two to go before proceeding". There was no guaranteed order that I could come up with, it was just that everyone in the area seemed to understand.
Written rules are great if everyone is following the written rules. If you follow the written rules at that intersection you'll be fine, but you're likely to annoy someone for a moment. Nobody is going to be confused if you wait, just impatient.
I agree with you. More important than following rules is to pay attention and adapt as appropriate. If you're the only one following the written rules, there's a chance that you're the one acting unpredictably.
Yeah the written rules seem logical. But they just don't match with human behavior.
Yeah this comment should not be so far in the negatives. I much prefer calling someone a dickhead for going before their turn than screaming "YOU HAVE RIGHT OF WAY" at some dipshit who's holding up traffic because they feel like being nice
Found the Cali driver
Nope, been all over the country. It's always been that way.