Every few months someone proposes replacing the four-way stop at Elm and Twentieth with a signal, or a roundabout, or anything faster. The complaint is always the same: it is slow, it is awkward, drivers hesitate. All true. I want to argue that the awkwardness is the feature.
At a light, you obey a machine. At a four-way stop, you negotiate with a person.
What we would actually lose
Efficiency has a way of erasing the small frictions where a neighborhood happens. A slow corner produces things a signal never will.
- The wave-through, that tiny transaction of courtesy
- The eye contact that keeps a cyclist and a driver honest
- The pace that lets a kid cross without a countdown clock
I am not against safety, and if the crash data ever turned against the corner I would change my mind tomorrow. But most of the case against it is really a case against having to pay attention. Fairmount is a place that still asks you to pay attention. I would keep at least one corner that insists on it.
Slow the corner down, and you slow the street down, and a slow street is the kind you can actually live on.
Related: Opinion · cuts to the 41 bus
Further reading: Traffic calming
