The 4 Way Stop, easy as 1-2-3

Four way stops. How complicated can it be? There is one rule and one rule only: The first vehicle to arrive at a complete stop is the first vehicle allowed to leave the stop sign. Done.

I go through a particular 4 way stop almost every day near where I work, and I can’t tell you how many people don’t seem to understand the simplicity of a four way stop. These are the problems I’ve witnessed:

The person who’s in a hurry: This person will pull up, give a quick 1 second tap to the breaks, pay no attention to any cars in the vicinity and go ahead and floor on through the stop sign completely oblivious to the other cars patiently waiting their turn. While the people in the 3 other vehicles at the stop sign are thinking “What an A-hole”, this person is driving happily along, either on their cell phone, jammin’, out, or totally stoned.

The confused person: This type comes to a complete stop and continues to look both ways, but never really moves. It’s as if they’re waiting for the sign to either turn green or flip over and say “GO.” Pretty soon the 4 way stop has turned into a 4 way WTF. Someone usually ends up honking, and the person seems to wake up with an expression that says “Oh, silly me, I can go!” and off they go.

The l-don’t-like-to-follow-the-rules dude: This person thinks it’s ok to NOT use their blinker, since it’s their turn I suppose, but this is never a good idea. Another vehicle across from you that stopped a second after you may think you’re going straight ahead, so they can also go straight ahead, and sort of share your turn but instead you take a left. This could cause accidents and unnecessary finger flipping that could have been easily avoided had you used your blinker.

The nice person: This person thinks they’re doing a good deed by waving all the other cars to “go on ahead.” Nobody expects this, so they only get annoyed and either get into a "no you go” “no YOU go” wave-a-thon until finally someone gets irritated enough to just floor it, resulting into a blast of exhaust. Meanwhile, there’s a train of pissed off drivers lining up behind the “nice guy”, all of which are either honking their horns or mouthing the words “Fuck-ing Go!”

That’s it. If you stop first you go first! Don’t make it complicated. Don’t think too hard about it. Stop and go. And if it’s a tie, then the person to the right always has the right of way. Or just floor it and keep things moving :)