Most, if not all, intersections on residential streets need to be 4 way stops. People blow through streets going way too fast, and the blind turns are nerve-wracking.

You say that, but you don't actually want that.

No, I do. Especially since I treat most as 4 ways anyway. There are too many chances in those dense neighborhoods, and people need forced to change.

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No, you don't. If you drive at all in Cambridge, you drive through dozens of intersections on streets with only two stop signs for the right and left sides every day. What you're saying is dishonest and quite frankly wrong. You don't optimize a city by arbitrarily putting 4 way stops at every single intersection.

You can share your opinion all you want but the fact is that this intersection has been deemed too dangerous judging by the number of crashes there.

> and the blind turns are nerve-wracking.

Perhaps first we should fix these turns so that there are no blind turns...?

You'd have to level the entire city.

Please continue to tell me what I think and do. I LOVE that.

Edit to add:

What are you talking about with optimizing a city? Optimizing for who? I drive daily and hate it, wishing we could all go car-less. Pedestrians and others on the road (like other drivers!) shouldn't be put in danger because you want to save 0.4 seconds on your commute.

It seems to me that an "optimized city" would prefer to prioritize public safety over your desire to save that 0.4 seconds.

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Marking (and enforcing) 10 yards of "no parking" before / after every intersection would work wonders. It's mostly the cars that block vision.

It's the enforcing that seems to be the issue.

Other options include speed bumps

Why not both?

You could enforce it by widening the sidewalk on those turns so that it's physically impossible to park there. That seems to be the preferred solution for intersections, anyway. It does cost money though. May not be practical immediately.

I lived a block away for 9.5 years and heard screeching brakes and honking all day every day, plus several T-bone accidents. Some were so bad that they’d have to close the street. The city has known about that intersection and never acted — I wrote on the SeeClickFix site about it numerous times and they responded that they “moved the stop sign further up,” which I don’t think they ever did. Glad they’re finally doing something about it, but man, it took a fucking long time.

Am I the only one questioning why they have to advertise it to pedestrians?

Because we're the ones who get hit.

Drivers on Franklin have their view obstructed by the Cosmic Moose and they don't stop until they clear it if at all, which is far too often too late for the pedestrians they didn't see. They are so busy looking past the fence to see oncoming traffic beyond it that they completely ignore the crosswalk.

People in the neighborhood both drive and walk. Where else should they put the sign?

Please not speed bumps those of us with low cars and/or work trucks can’t get over them easily and have to cross at an angle, which is not ideal

More stop signs that the drivers here will ignore, hurray!

No. Because ambulances and other first responder vehicles.

Giving up the right of way by treating a two way stop as a four-way stop can be confusing to other drivers and it’s not recommended. One of the best things you can do as a driver is be predictable.

Never seen a low-slung work truck? What sort of work trucks have lower ground clearance than a car?

As for cars, if you lower your car and now it can't get around, I think that's on you. They put violent speed bumps in Somerville and while people whine about them all the time, the only people I've ever seen scraping their cars were going way too fast. Ironically, weirdly often in Priuses, though friends who driver Priuses say they have zero problems because they slow down for the bumps.

Ugh, no, traffic calming should not be by creating endless stop-and-start, creating extra noise and pollution. Other forms of traffic calming are superior to adding yet more of the most idiotic traffic control layout known to man (that almost the entire rest of the world rightly shuns).

I have a low to the ground car and only have issues when I'm going too fast. I recommend slowing down.

The rest of the world shuns stop signs?

In most countries stop signs are quite rare - like you can go days without seeing one, so kind of, yes.

But I was talking about all-way stops, which are only in N. America, Liberia, and S. Africa, because they are inefficient and unhelpful.

I mean...

> for use at low traffic-volume locations, the arrangement is common in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, and Liberia, as well as in a number of, usually rural, locations in Australia where visibility on the junction approaches is particularly poor.

is pretty dead on for Cambridge.

And I noticed you missed a couple of countries....

We also don't have many roundabouts, and never will have as many as other countries where they're more common. This doesn't seem like a fair comparison when the roads are completely different in other countries.

If we're going to quote, how about the disadvantages:

> the Handbook of Road Safety Measures recommends that four-way stops are best used between minor roads away from urbanized areas

and

> Some of the disadvantages associated with all-way stops are: > > * Increased emissions of hydrocarbons.[9]: 431–433 > * Increased average delay.[9]: 430 > * Increased wear on vehicle brakes > * Discouraging bicycling.[10]

Wow. So many major disadvantages to prioritizing safety. /s--clearly

It’s not the speed, it’s the splitter. It’s a bone stock 996 that can’t make it over the ones in Sommerville unless I go diagonally.

For the work truck it’s not the height, it’s that my Tools get flung around and slam into each other! You’ll notice most folks, such as myself, drive really slowly in our tool trucks cuz large potholes and other road bumps can not only make a mess, but break tools! Speed bumps are brutal for the tools slamming into each other and ladders sliding around. It’s not like they will fall off, it’s just loud, unpleasant, and expensive. And i don’t mean to sound like they shouldn’t change intersections where people are getting hurt, I just think removing vision obscuring items should happen way before speed bumps!

And the other car is a bone stock 996 that can’t make it over them

I guess yeah it is kind of a main artery

I bet the handbook would recommend a traffic signal for this purpose. Might work a bit better than a stop sign.

Another good option when available is a mini roundabout, basically a raised circle in the middle, so it's impossible to go straight through.

College Ave at Davis has these, they're great

hmm I'm curious, where? I'm assuming you don't mean powderhouse sq

There's one down the street towards Davis

Great. More stop signs for police to completely ignore.