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Dr. Delay

Some drivers puzzled by generic stop signs

By LORRIE LYKINS
Published January 15, 2006

"Stop" always means stop. I guess. I mean, I think so. Well, maybe not.

Okay, here's this week's conundrum: I received a delightful e-mail from Dorothy McClellan of Belleair Beach about those little white placards that are sometimes posted directly underneath stop signs. The ambiguous placards, which say "STOP ALL WAY," have been added to some stop signs on the beach, and McClellan is wondering what the story is behind them.

Here's what she wrote:

"When the signs appeared at intersections reading "STOP ALL WAY' we first thought it meant to stop all the way, not just slow down. But it seems these signs really mean "STOP EACH WAY.' We still have jolts of grammatical insult each time we see these signs used. Many intersections have little signs under the big octagon which read "3-way' or "4-way.' Those little signs work just fine in letting us know what the traffic engineer wants of us. We would greatly appreciate your investigating this for all of us who are profoundly bewildered at how these "STOP ALL WAY' signs made it into our lives. We can't help but imagine the traffic engineers who came up with this discussing whether the sign should read "STOP ALL WAYS' but then bogging down at the choice of "STOP ALWAYS' and risking no movement through the intersection at all! Please find out how these things ever made it into the real world."

I spoke with Ken Jacobs of Pinellas County public works, and Jacobs said that because some intersections may be two-, three- or four-way stops, the "STOP ALL WAY" signs are generic and can be used in any configuration of intersection where stop signs require traffic to stop.

"It is an allowable way to show that all vehicles that have approached the intersection have a stop sign" Jacobs said.

And, Jacobs said, from a budgetary perspective, it's more efficient to have a stock of the generic, catch-all signs.

It happened again. Last week, I watched an emergency vehicle attempting to get through heavy traffic downtown and, while the majority of cars in the road yielded to the ambulance, some did not. I often marvel when I see motorists appearing to ignore emergency vehicles, and I wonder what the reasons could be for these sorts of incidents. Are drivers startled by the sudden eruption of sirens and flashing lights and just not able to respond quickly enough? Perhaps. I know that I often hear sirens long before I figure out where the emergency vehicles actually are and where they are headed. And even sometimes when I think I know where the vehicles are going, I am wrong.

An example of this comes from reader Douglas Land, who encountered an emergency vehicle heading the opposing direction on a one-way street:

"Can emergency vehicles such as firetrucks and ambulances travel the wrong way on one-way streets? I know that intersections and traffic congestion create obstacles, but my experience was during the day and little traffic in St. Petersburg. I exited northbound I-275 at 175 and went east to Eighth Street S. I turned left on a green light from a one-way to another one-way street. I heard sirens to my left as I approached the turn, and was very startled to turn directly into the path of an approaching firetruck and ambulance behind it. I was so disoriented, thinking I was going the wrong way and perhaps about to have a head-on collision, I drove over the curb."

The answer to Land's question is yes, it is lawful for drivers of emergency vehicles to choose whichever route is most readily available, including oncoming traffic lanes. So it's important to be alert, although occurrences like the reader describes are infrequent.

One more observation: The bottom line, in case anyone missed the memo, is that it is mandatory that traffic yield to emergency vehicles, no matter what. Sometimes we are failing to yield or yielding slowly because of our own self-imposed and ill-advised distractions. So let's get the cheeseburgers out of our hands, the iPods out of our ears, hang up the cell phones, turn down the stereos and pay attention to what's happening on the road.

I've written about the dangerously high speeds motorists are reaching while maneuvering through the vast parking lot and winding roads around the Wal-Mart off 38th Avenue N and Tyrone Boulevard, but since the problem continues, it bears repeating.

Some residents of the Crosswinds Mobile Home Park near the corner of Tyrone Boulevard and Park Street are wishing motorists in the area would yield to cyclists attempting to get to the Pinellas Trail in one piece.

One reader wrote: "Many residents of the park ride their two-wheel bikes along the sidewalk to get to the bike path. To reach the bike path it is necessary to cross the driveway on the west side of the Lighthouse Plaza, where Wal-Mart is located. Cars exiting the Wal-Mart parking lot are zooming up to the intersection trying to turn north onto Park Street. They do not stop for the stop sign and in most cases don't even look to the right. The drop in the sidewalk and the painted white lines on the road are ignored."

This is an area that is ripe for a traffic study and some creative problem-solving. Let's hope it happens soon.

Monday's Martin Luther King Jr. Drum Major for Justice Parade will begin at 1:15 p.m. on Martin Luther King Jr. Street and Third Avenue S, then head north to Central Avenue, then east to Bayshore Drive to Fifth Avenue NE. Downtown traffic along the parade route will be affected for a few hours, so plan accordingly.

Please share your traffic concerns, comments and questions with Dr. Delay via e-mail at docdelay@yahoo.com

[Last modified January 15, 2006, 01:47:20]