A very interesting new idea for an old one. This hits close to home because there is literally a stop sign two blocks from my house at a T-intersection that is completely pointless and, frankly, one I regularly simply ignore.
Indeed, Gary Lauder, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, was just the latest to propose a redesign of the stop sign during a recent and much-discussed TED presentation. Using the example of a three-way intersection in which a minor road ended in a “T” at a major road, with stop signs all the way around, Lauder calculated that the stopping led to a collective yearly loss in fuel and time valued at roughly $112,000. Why not just use a yield sign on the minor approach? Well, at certain times of the day a queue backs up there, and cars have trouble making the turn. So Lauder proposed a hybrid “stop-yield” sign, simply labeled “Take Turns,” paired with the instruction: “If cars are waiting please stop and alternate.”