Stop Signs - When Moral "Hazard" becomes Reality

July 1, 2016

When I wrote an article on four way stop sign for a local weekly newspaper six years ago, we lived in a different country.   "#blacklivesmatter" and all that it represents didn't exist.  We had never had a presidential campaign where the criteria for election is which of the major candidates is less hated, rather than more respected.  When I wrote that article, actually with a touch of irony, to be read in a  white, wealthy coastal city, the following two sentences didn't resonate with the audience.
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"My arguments about the deeper “moral hazard” of turning law-abiding citizens into law breakers fell on deaf ears...." "Multi-way stop signs, although shown to be worse than useless, are a product of bureaucratic inertia. (Need I mention it also being a sweet piggy bank for cash-strapped local government?)"
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About an hour ago, I stopped to chat with a sheriff's deputy who was on a side street waiting to ticket those who did not come to a complete stop (details available).  He welcomed a short conversation, but said he had to do his job, and pointed past me to one car that had slowed down, and with no pedestrians or cars nearby, then slowly went through the sign.  "I have to go after him" the officer said, as  he pulled away to come back a few minutes later saying he missed him.   Our conversation continued.  I explained my position, that carefully slowing was preferable to a complete stop, acknowledging that he had to follow the law as written; his then said that this would require a  yield sign. I told him about the proposal for a hybrid sign that would be a virtual roundabout, and explained that most four way stop signed are not "warranted" based on federal criteria but rather installed because of resident's demands to elected officials.

 In justifying his ticketing drivers for an infraction that is all but universally breached, he said something interesting on a larger societal level.  "Stop means stop.  If someone is pummeling someone with a bat,  he must stop, not slow down."  This is telling, as for this police officer, there is no differentiating between a lethal assault that would cripple or kill someone, and a careful rolling though a stop sign that presents not even a heightened risk for harm.  For this officer observing someone breaking the law triggers a reaction, the apprehension and meting out punishment.  If the law breaker is compliant, there will be the issuance of a traffic summons, and perhaps even a cordial "Drive carefully."  If not, if bad moods coincide among the two parties, there can be a tragedy such as I describe below.   

After the officer said that he personally always comes to a complete stop, I asked if members of his family do.  He said they do when the is in the car with them. (I had had this conversation with another deputy who acknowledged his family does not).  While six years ago, the moral hazard I alluded to could only be predicted; but after Ferguson, Baltimore and Sandra Bland -- who driving to her interview for a university position, where a questionable traffic stop set off a chain of events that ended with her death -- it is no long a hazard, but a reality.

While Bland's story is rare, we now know that for many in this country a traffic ticket that can't be paid can change a life.  For those in north coast San Diego, it's usually just an annoyance, but the money to pay traffic fines is there and won't supplant vital medicine or food for the family.   Most even accept the randomness of traffic tickets, that driving 80 on a highway should be suppressed even though only one in a thousand get caught.  Since accidents increase with speed there is a legitimate purpose for suppressing this. This is not the case with carefully rolling through multi way stop signs.

With four way stop signs, the problem is not those who enforce the laws but those who make them.  There may be intersections where a full stop is appropriately mandated, but they are the exception rather than the rule. This is being written to provide tools to city councils to explain that what appears to be enhancing the safety of their children is not doing so, and actually causes other adverse consequences.
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Compendium of 70 studies on four way stop signs.
pp2, paragraph 6
  

Safety of pedestrians is decreased at unwarranted multi-way stops, especially small children. It seems that pedestrians expect vehicles to stop at the stop signs but many vehicles have gotten in the habit of running the "unnecessary" stop sign. Thirteen references found this to be their finding.