London Banter - View Single Post - Reduce Traffic

HV Biker · June 1st 04, 04:15 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On Tue, 1 Jun 2004 15:21 +0100 (BST), (Peter Beale)
wrote:

One thing which struck me as very odd (apart from driving on the wrong
side of the road) was a number of quite major cross-roads where traffic
from all four directions is required to stop. They then look at each other
until one of them decides to proceed, hoping that the other will not do so
at the same time.

I like those four-way stops.

It's not supposed to be a free-for-all. Drivers should take it in
turns to move, with priority given to whomever arrived at the junction
first, and so on. IME it tends to work well - as long as everybody
plays by the rules.

The four-way stop has a significant benefit compared to a roundabout,
in that it is completely fair. It does not allow one heavily
trafficked route to monopolise the junction at peak times. I wish we
had them here.

HVB.