Thank you for your lengthy response.
I too am confused by signage in Alberta and probably the rest of Canada. It is hard to differentiate between “STOP” and “STOP4way”. The latter should have a different kind of sign. I think the traffic engineers fear making that signage change will result in a couple of months of a lot more than usual accidents.
I like STOP4way for a simple reason: if someone screws up, nobody is going too fast so it’s easy to take evasive action.
A few years back, I was riding with my cousin who is an aggressive driver. He totally missed seeing the STOP4way in a suburb. But other two cars saw him and were driving slow enough to miss him. Had my cousin missed a regular STOP sign, there would have been an accident.
Putting roundabouts in the intersection where my friend died is not practical. He was on a gravel round and crossing a paved highway. A roundabout will slow down the highway traffic considerably. Besides there might be 500 rural intersections in my county.
I detest aggressive drivers. But it is politically incorrect to make a statement in this regard.
A couple years ago, a trucker was driving in the fog at normal speeds. Truckers can often see ‘over the fog’ so that entitles them to not adjust their speed. He was doing 100 km/hr when he came behind a car who was doing 60 km/hr. He could not brake in time, so he took his truck into the ditch. He rolled three times, destroying the truck and trailer. He walked away from the accident and was given a hero’s accolade for taking the right kind of evasive action. PAH! He should have anticipated that other cars cannot see “over the fog” and would be slowing down. I mentioned this perspective in a staff lunch room and was soundly taken to task.
We westerners are too tolerate of traffic accidents. USA loses 3,000 people in a one-off terrorist attack, and goes into a couple of silly wars. But 40,000 people die each year on the highways and streets. Half those deaths could prevented by stricter enforcement of current traffic laws. But we don’t want policemen interfering with our freedom.
As you can see, I have strong opinions on this topic.
