The good, bad and ugly of four- way stops

I remember driver’s education classes that told us about the rules of the simple four- way stop. And then I encountered Four- waygeddon at the intersection of two small residential routes, Hell Street and Perdition Avenue.

Facing hell Street is an elementary school. Hell is open to legal parking along one side. The other is a school drop- off zone. If you venture down hell Street on any weekday morning, expect to see an array of vehicles squaring off head to head.

After you’ve backed up a half- dozen times, manoeuvred around numerous derelict vehicles and nosed into tiny crevices to let oncoming traffic pass, you arrive at Four- waygeddon. One car clearly arrives first at the four- way stop, but the crossing guard blows his whistle and escorts some children across the street in front of it.

Another car stops first at the intersection and lets a child off in front of the school. Look, there’s a school bus on Perdition Avenue! It can’t get anywhere close to the school, so it’s dropping off a load of kids along the street. Once the bus STOP signal is retracted, the car’s driver feels she’s entitled to proceed. Unfortunately, the other cars entering the intersection don’t think so, as they narrowly avoid a three- way crash.

There are four cars stopped at the intersection, some of them indicating they’re going to turn.

Who goes first? Finally, the launch is simultaneous. Miraculously the vehicles miss each other by centimetres.