Poll: The Number of Stop Signs in St. Louis is…
St. Louis is known for the St. Louis stop:
an action where you come up to a stop sign look both ways but never actually make a complete stop
People complain about them but many also request they be added at their corner. In the poll this week I’d like readers to finish the statement “The number of stop signs in St. Louis is…”
The answers range from not enough to excessive, appearing in random order in the poll in the right sidebar. The poll results and my thoughts on Wednesday March 19th.
— Steve Patterson
I say not enough, at least in the right places. We could use more stop signs downtown and fewer in some neighborhood locations. You can tell this is true the way when a stop light is out, and they replace it with temporary stop signs, usually traffic gets through the intersection at a much more even rate. Why? St. Louis just doesn’t have that much traffic volume to begin with. Stop lights often slow traffic movement much more than necessary. But it doesn’t matter. This is one conversation where nothing will ever change. Might as well post a poll about changing streets from one-way to two-way. Might be a great idea, but the entrenched interests involved will never do it. Ever.
Are you asking 4-way (or 3-way, at T intersections)? Or 2-way? I say that we have way too many 4-way stops – most can be 2-way and traffic would flow more smoothly and safely. The unintended consequence of too many 4-way stops is that too many people roll through them without coming to a full and complete stop, and looking both ways before proceeding.
When I lived in the Phoenix area in 1987-88, I heard this type of stop referred to as a “California Stop;” I think the practice of slowly rolling through stop signs is probably widespread, but I’ve never really researched the topic. Four way stop signs provide the safest type of intersection, but they do tend to induce this type of behavior when overused. I’ve not really noticed an excessive number of four way stop signs in St. Louis compared to the Milwaukee area where I used to live, but I also drive far less than I used to.
The octogenarian across the street told me STL was once riddled with “boulevard” stops where we now see many of our 4-ways. These were basically yield signs but had more emphasis on stopping. He claimed this was the answer to my question as to why EVERY STL native rolls EVERY stop sign EVERY goddamn time.