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Comment by theptip | Hacker News Reader

This is one of the worst UI decisions around driving in the US, in my opinion. Even if the "all-way" addendum was displayed below every stop sign without fail, the semantics of those two stop signs are so different as to warrant a different color and shape; if you mistake a "stop[just you]" for a "stop[all way]" then it's a really dangerous situation. It's easy to fail to spot the difference with a quick glance.

I'd be interested to see statistics on how many people die at these intersections, I suspect this is one of the needlessly dangerous aspects of driving in cities.

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The list of horrendous UI decisions goes on and on. A big one for me is left turn lanes. Often there are 2 left turn lanes (let's call them A and B) and they turn into 3 lanes on the other road (let's call them X, Y, Z) and it's not obvious whether A->X, B->Y, or A->Y, B->Z. I've seen many cases of both instances. They really should paint down colored lanes or something to make it unambiguous.

Leftmost lane takes leftmost lane, other lane takes any other lane.

Many intersections in my area use curved dashed lines to indicate turn lanes... https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/intersection/other_topics/fhwasa... One of the stated reasons are intersections with multiple turn lanes, to help drivers know how to make the turn and stay in their lane.

They're usually faded out or nonexistent in most of the roads I frequent. I wish they just painted one lane bright red and another lane bright blue. The whole lane. If it fades 90% it's still in-your-face clear and hard to mistake.

Or if you're worried about colorblind people, use patterns. Fill one lane with random dots and another lane with random stars.

Easy to say, but that's not true in all places. Here's one where the left 2 lanes are left turn lanes, and the leftmost left turn lane turns into the 2nd from left lane.

Big potential for accident for the right left turn lane to accidentally also turn into the same (2nd from left) lane and crash.

And NO, they don't know a priori that the leftmost lane of the street they are turning into is a left turn lane.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3626182,-121.8918193,3a,75y,...

They should seriously hang a HUGE sign like this and make it abundantly clear:

https://imgur.com/a/BLoor05

I've seen that as well and that only ever happens when the left most lane is also an exiting lane. It's not intuitive by any means but it's also consistent so if you know the rules and can see the road ahead, you'll be safe.

Perhaps I am alone, but after moving to an area with the 'Stop All Way' signs, I initially misinterpreted them as exhorting drivers to stop 'all the way', as in to come to a complete stop.

The first time I saw "Do not pass" signs I thought they meant "Thou shalt not pass" as in "Do not enter"

Too often a "Do not enter" sign is in an awkward place where there are two different roadways side by side, and at a glance it's not obvious which one is verboten. Frustrating UI.

There’s a few ‘Stop: Full stop’ signs in my neighborhood in NYC where cars have to cross over a sidewalk because they realize people’s idea of ‘stop’ is normally ‘drive across sidewalk with blind spots on either end at 10 mph with face in phone’

Stop signs in general are hugely abused as a method of speed limit enforcement.

The (European) alternative of a simple set of rules seems more attractive: at an intersection of two different roads, the larger road has the right of way. When two same-priority roads cross, the driver on the right has the right of way. Ambiguous intersections are governed by yield signs. Only in situations where there is actual danger (bad visibility, dangerous shape of the road etc), then stop signs are used.

When they're scarce, people heed them. When they're everywhere, people instinctively determine that they're kind of meaningless, and respect them only to avoid fines from the police.

Easiest way, and I do this every single time, is treat the Stop sign as a Stop and yield to everyone else sign unless it is explicitly marked as "All-way."

Throw in multiple lanes and its a mess

I don’t know, the “can turn left on green but oh make sure you yield to full speed cars coming right at you first” is pretty bad US driving UI too

Conversely, sitting in the middle of the road with no incursions possible simply because a lightbulb is the wrong color is pretty bad UX. People are going to have to make decisions on when to proceed, and even motorcycle crash statistics indicate that drivers turning left at controlled intersections are much less likely to cause a collision.

How so? Green light means the same thing as if there were no lights at all; you yield to oncoming traffic when you want to turn.

The signal for "safe to turn" is completely different, a green arrow.

It's not mandatory either. You can sit and wait if you want.

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