Let’s give up ‘Give Ways’.
In South Australia instructors are also examiners. One of the hardest things I find, is to fail an overseas licence conversion test; maybe someone who has safely driven for 20 years in London. A common fault is rolling very slowly through a STOP sign. The authorities give us no leniency, even when exceeding the speed limit we are allowed 9 km/h over for up to 10 seconds.
I’m sure instructors reading this also face the odd customer who swears that they stopped at the stop sign, when in fact the wheels rotated until a clear view was obtained. When it was clear, the applicant saw no point in stopping but moved on.
After convincing one young man that he had not completely stopped, he announced: ‘You mean, stop, stop? A middle aged lady from South Africa informed me that over there they have to stop for 15 seconds, hard to believe. The most intelligent answer was: ‘Ah, all four wheels must stop’. (This is not the humour section, these comments were actually made to me).
Turn the calendar back 50 years or so. Motor cars did not have synchronized first gear. Coming to a blind corner meant, stopping (stop stop) and engaging first gear. Mechanically it was impossible to roll on as you couldn’t change down to first gear while moving. (Automatic cars were still on the drawing board). So here is my theory: ‘
Before signs were introduced, intersections were mainly uncontrolled. As traffic gradually increased, give way and stop signs were introduced. On a blind corner, where a slow speed was called for, a STOP was placed. Corners that were open and could be negotiated faster (in second gear) a GIVE WAY sufficed.
Technology has progressed, thank goodness, unfortunately not everything and everyone moved forward with it.
So why do I advocate to abolish give way-signs? Place only STOP SIGNS at intersections, psychologically they have a greater effect to slow down motorists. Perhaps the SIZE of the STOP sign would give an indication as to how blind the corner is. Or colour-code stop signs in three colours red, amber or green, to categorize intersections: Green visibility reasonable, amber visibility limited and red, blind corner, best ‘obey the stop sign’!
I think most motorists would be intelligent enough to drive through at a safe speed. Don’t we have to do this now at T-junctions, give-ways signs, roundabouts etc.
To get fined for barely rolling through a stop sign or failing a driving test only makes for an angry motorist not a safer one.