“06880” has performed many civic functions over the years.
We’ve told you where to get COVID vaccines (remember those?).
We’ve given you details on dumping your yard waste after a storm. We’ve provided primers on septic systems.
Today, we’re a Driver Ed teacher.
Alert “06880 reader — and terrified-to-be-on-the-road-these-days Westporter — Lynn Flint sends along these reminders of who has the right-of-way at 4-way stop signs.
Three examples: Hillspoint and Greens Farms Roads; Cross Highway and Bayberry Lane; Cross Highway and North Avenue (tricky, because one of the stops is not visible to all other drivers).
The North Avenue/Cross Highway intersection may be the most dangerous one in Westport without a light. Who goes first?
Here are the rules:
1. The first vehicle to arrive has the right of way. Pretty easy: You get there (clearly) first, you go first.
2. Always yield to the right. When 2 vehicles arrive side by side, the one furthest to the right has the right of way. (That’s “right” — an easy way to remember it.) If there are 3 vehicles, the one furthest left goes last (“left = last”).
3. Straight traffic has the right of way over turning traffic. This applies when 2 cars face each other. If they’re both heading straight, or turning in the same direction (say, both left or both right), both can go at the same time. If one is turning, but the other is not, the turning driver yields to the straight-ahead driver. NOTE: This assumes that a driver who is turning uses the turn signal. That’s the little arm on the steering column. It is not difficult to push up or down, and it is not there for decoration.
4. Right turns take the right of way over left turns. This is Advanced Placement Driver Ed. Imagine 2 cars facing each other. One is turning right; the other is turning left. If they both go at the same time, they’ll crash. So the car turning right — the one closest to the turn — goes first.
There is no written test for this — just a practical exam.
See you on the road!
(Hat tip: TopDriver.com)
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YES. YES. YES. and can you tell my kid when i make eye contact with Car#2 to make sure they know i’m CR #1, the 3 seconds I spend doing so DOES NOT CEDE
MY #1POSITION.
And jt goes without saying it does not give permission to the guy behind them to go next. I killed one horn on my car reminding them and are working on my 2nd horn.
Particularly common at the intersection by OMG/Elvira’s.
And to the someone who eventually buys the outsized BLUE HOUSE at that same intersection: good luck anyone ever letting you out of your garage.
Possibly add a 5th rule: actually STOP at the stop sign. Not just slow down.
Totney, in Westport they’re really “Stoptional signs”.
If 4-way stops are confusing, just wait until they bring back traffic circles.
Thanks Dan. Can the next topic be “How to make a left turn and allow traffic to continue to flow”, please.
You took the words right out of my mouth, literally. I was thinking of printing rules up and handing them out at intersections.
One more observation: Don’t try to be nice and just wave cats through – it just confuses everyone. If it’s your turn, go.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you how do we get people to follow the rules?
Could you please write up the rule for making a left at an intersection with lights? ….not just sit at the crosswalk till you decide to go… creating a wagon train of traffic behind you while only one car gets through the intersection. Please write this up on your next lesson plan ….that you learned to get your license the first time.
Next lesson is identifying that left lane only arrows mean just that – not going straight by pushing ahead into the right lane because lord knows waiting in a queue is so inconvenient.
I like your comment about that little stick on the steering wheel column. Quite often I would like to remind, especially the left turners, of its function and how to use it.
Thanks for the much needed reminder, and while at the intersection, please use that “stick” on left side of the steering column, push up, right turn, push down, left turn! It’s called a turn signal!
Another obvious yet frequently ignored rule is No Piggybacking at a stop sign. I see it most frequently on Hyde Lane when the school guard is not present, as well as at the corner of Long Lots and North Avenue. There’s always a car behind the car that’s moving through the stop sign that decides they’ll just tag along!
Thank you for writing about this topic. Love all the comments too. It’s gotten to the point where I can’t stand driving around town especially at certain times of day.
Thank you for reminding us of the rules. I wasn’t sure about number 4, but you have confirmed it for me. Many people don’t use turn signals, which is very exasperating and dangerous.
This is the best reminder we could have about the dangerous business of 4-way or 3-way stops. And we do have signal lights in cars which seems to be a forgotten tool. Thanks for the most useful post.
Where’s Crowbar?
John Prine sang about this conundrum: https://open.spotify.com/track/6CcgA1iRwCJpepz1CGEFRW?si=q1KqNouySL-ShAOVpUWZvA
I’ve seen cars go in the left turn only lane and then turn RIGHT on red in front of the car in the right lane who wasn’t turning right or didn’t do so fast enough.
And don’t get me started on cars running “solidly red” lights (not yellow or “pink”). I’ve gone through lights that turned red as I passed under, when I shouldn’t have, and I look in the mirror and see that two cars behind me also went through. It’s time for Connecticut to start using red light cameras If people are afraid that they will get a ticket for going through a split second late, just have the cameras set to catch cars going through a second AFTER it turns red. You will still catch the worst offenders and there would be MANY.
I’ve had cars pass me on the right while driving, just to get in front of me, then zooming away. Also, the intersection at Post Road East and N/S Buckley is incredibly dangerous, with cars playing “Chicken” when the light changes.
Thank you. The forced left turns drive me crazy the most. Just like with a traffic light, you can enter the intersection, but you let the intersection clear of oncoming traffic before you start your turn.
Right of way and yielding to your right is important, but so is going when it is your turn instead of waving someone else through. If there is oncoming traffic to you that you don’t see because you are looking right or left and waving them through, you are facilitating a collision. Just go when you’re supposed to, and don’t go when you’re not.
And – if you are at an intersection with a left turn arrow, unless it cycles from green to a red arrow, you can still turn left, when it is safe, until the main light turns red.
AND these apply to bicyclists!
I recently passed a clearly experienced cyclist about 100-feet from a four-way. I arrived at the stop sign with my left-turn signal on, simultaneous with a car coming toward me. I waved them to go first (they were coming straight through) but they waved me to go and, since I wasn’t going to let this become a never-ending dance, took my foot off the break. Alas, this idiot cyclist clearly didn’t feel the need to stop at all, passed me on the right, and turned left in front of me, going the same way I was going. I could easily have run the guy over and he was completely oblivious.