Stop signs and traffic lights equal less safety

Each case is different, but in the aggregate, the reason traffic control devices aren’t installed more frequently is quite simple: They tend to make streets less safe, not more.

Reid Ewing, a professor at the University of Utah, literally wrote the book on traffic calming — the Institute of Transportation Engineers’ Traffic Calming: State of the Practice. “They’re good for traffic control,” said Ewing of stop signs and traffic lights. “They’re not so good for traffic calming.” In other words, they help make traffic flow in a more orderly fashion, but not necessarily in a safer one.

“We kind of panned stop signs as a traffic calming measure,” continued Ewing. “They don’t do a lot for speeding, because there’s a tendency for drivers to make up for the lost time.” That can lead to increased speeds midblock. Ewing did say that with enough stop signs, drivers will avoid a street altogether, reducing the number of cars but not the danger of each one.