But if a driver suddenly decides throw the 4-way stop etiquette out the window and start directing traffic from behind a windshield I often can't see through clearly because of tinting/my sunglasses/glare-from-the-sun. I'm at a bit of a loss...are they waving me though? talking to a kid in the back seat? messing with their phone?
If I go, I'm risking my neck if they were in fact distracted and not waving me though. If I resist going out-of-turn, that's awkward because my feeling is some drivers get frustrated I'm ignoring their attempt to help me out.
The bicyclist didn't stop, was struck by my car, fell off, went to hospital. She was okay in the long run, but sued over the incident; the police officer who wrote up the event determined that I was at fault (despite eyewitnesses to the contrary) based on the claim that I should have stopped for the bicyclist.
At this point, given that bikes are known to do this I really don't have any choice in the matter. I'm glad I didn't kill anyone - head trauma can be really tricky. I'm concerned that I was the victim of insurance fraud (she really did run out in front of me). My insurance company just settled the complaint - didn't want to get deep into litigation over a matter of hearsay and he-said-she-said.
So, what should I do? If it's a car approaching a 4-way, I assume they will follow traffic laws. If it's a bike, I'm not so certain. My experience isn't just that one time in berkeley I hit someone, now that I live in SF, there's plenty of times when I've observed bicyclists taking their lives into their own hands and dodging traffic without obeying stop signs and red lights.
As I mentioned in a cousin reply, I once struck a bicyclist who wasn't obeying traffic rules (she blew a stop sign at a 4-way) and was found liable for the accident at least by the officer who wrote the accident report. We're all lucky her injuries weren't major, but there's no way I'm going to risk hitting a biker who is barreling down a hill toward a 4-way by assuming they're going to follow the traffic laws.