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I've seen fairly commonly in developing suburban scenarios something like "a through street with a new -- but very low-traffic -- intersection with a cross street". People are accustomed to driving fast on the through street, increasing the risks of the conflict at the intersection, but 99% of the time there is no conflict.

The easy solution that's often chosen is to add a stop sign to these intersections, but this tends to result in largely-unnecessary stopping and starting, which then tends to increase the number of conflicts (because the traffic on the through street tends to congest at the new stop rather than passing quickly through it).

A better solution would address the nature of the risk -- speed -- more directly. Traffic calming techniques like narrowing the road, or deflection (manufactured bends in the road or speed humps) would improve outcomes for all road users more than a stop sign that creates congestion (and therefore conflict).




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