I’m from the UK where in general there’s only a stop sign if it’s needed, such as a junction where you can see absolutely nothing on one side. Otherwise usually there’s a give way line instead, to let people slow the car right down to look, but not need to stop if it’s unnecessary.
Whenever I see a video of an American street, it seems like there’s a stop sign everywhere I’d expect there to be a give way line. Surely this is inefficient as stopping and starting increases emissions, and stops the flow of traffic.
Is it really just the American government doesn’t expect drivers to look properly? Is it so the police can give people tickets for not quite stopping but still doing the junction completely safely?
A lot of people here are saying how we need to get rid of cars in cities, but my perspective is slightly different. That’s all well and good, and ultimately what I want too, but I live in the country. There isn’t public transport around me, and it’s completely infeasible to have it running all over the countryside frequently enough to be useful.
What I want is a hybrid system, where I’d drive to a smaller town, leave the car there (preferably with free or cheap parking so that it doesn’t make it more expensive to do this), then take public transport from there. Ultimately I think this is by far the best option, as it doesn’t make life harder for people in the country, and it removes cars from the cities.