Stop signs are a pretty bad solution for traffic calming, though. The key to effective traffic calming is to shape drivers’ natural behaviors, not authoritatively demand it.

A stop sign that serves no purpose than to slow people down will piss off drivers more than anything, and lead to people speeding between signs or running them. It will make your street noisier as impatient people aggressively obey the signs.

A typical neighborhood would be much better off if traffic was calmed by adding kerb extensions or narrowing the lanes.

I think the above commenter might share my frustration that local politics is often full of people unknowingly demanding the wrong solution to their problem.

In retrospect, saying that I drive spiritedly immediately after talking about neighborhoods, was unfortunate juxtaposition on my part. The two are not related!

Nope! I don't speed through neighborhoods; in fact, I drive more slowly than most people through them. I did, however, have a commute through a neighborhood, for 10 years. (There was a 30mph arterial off of which spur roads went into the neighborhoods; no houses fronted the road, just fences).

A number of 4-way stops existed on the route to the office complex for no valid reason whatsoever. The arterial traffic was the vast majority of traffic. I watched over the course of 10 years as more 4-way stops were installed to calm traffic, which is specifically contra-indicated by proper traffic engineering. In fact, I remember reporting on one community meeting, where the community hired a traffic engineer who specifically told them not to use stop signs for traffic calming; they did anyway.

The stop signs actually took away from the attention folks paid to cross streets. Eyes down, stare at stop line, come to a stop, go.. it was much easier to not notice cross traffic or pedestrians!

They all should have been roundabouts, frankly.

Anyway, my point is, 4 way stops are an environmental nightmare in every possible way, and rarely the correct solution.