Stop signs don’t control speed

Editor:

No doubt Clearview council was well intentioned in their desire to respond to residents’ concerns about speeding in Creemore but they might have done some research before making their decisions.

The Ontario Department of Transportation Traffic Manual states that, “Stop signs are not intended to be used as speed control devices. Their usage should be limited to the control of right-of-way conflicts.”

All-way stop signs (as opposed to two-way stop signs) should be used at intersections where both directions have a more or less equal and large volumes of traffic but not enough to justify the installation of traffic lights.

This is not the case at Mary and George where anyone entering the intersection from Mary Street with the expectation that cars on George Street will stop is being somewhat optimistic.

Georgia State Traffic Engineer Martin Bretherton Jr. reviewed over 70 technical papers on all-way stop signs and found that they do nothing in controlling speed. In fact many studies show that speeds increase as drivers pull away from the intersection and speed to make up for lost time. What all-way stop signs do, is result in poor compliance when they are seen as unnecessary.

Having established this precedent I can’t help but wonder what council will do when the next group of concerned citizens demand all-way stop signs for their neighbourhood.

Paul Vorstermans,

Creemore.