Stop Signs Are Clever Way To Enforce Rules
Editor: I see a four-way Stop sign from my picture window. About one in 20 drivers actually stop. Another five drivers thinks lighting the brake light is a stop. The remainder do slow from half speed to quarter speed when no other cars are present.
Almost never do I see a car drive through without touching the brakes. Park your car near a corner and observe for yourself.
The conclusion is that respect for the law, or fear of the cops, or the chance of being hurt, or wrecking the car, is not enough to motivate compliance with the rules.
I’m just guessing but if it costs $50 per hour to keep a cop car on the street and we have a thousand intersections with signs in the village, total enforcement would be too expensive
But what if, for a $140 per intersection (guessing again) per year, we could motivate another 10 percent of the drivers to actually stop? Could we stimulate a sense of civic responsibility, or amusement, cooperation, reality, naborliness and good will with those clever additions to the existing Stop signs?
It is an imaginitive and inexpensive experiment that has increased peer disapproval among violators, and public awareness of the growing disrespect for the rules. Is there a better idea out there....or even another idea just as good?
Quit crabbing about “federal laws” and “unsightly signs” and chuckle while you stop at the next sign.
— Tom Drury
Oak Lawn