The Four-Way Stop Where Nobody Is Really First
At 4:50 p.m. on a wet November afternoon you are westbound on a two-lane city street in Corner Brook, approaching a four-way stop where your street meets a busier cross street. Your wipers are on, the pavement is slick, and a small pickup is about 12 metres behind you.
The order of arrival is clear. A northbound pickup has been stopped at its line for roughly three seconds and is signalling a left turn across your path. You stop next. A southbound sedan rolls to a stop a moment after you and intends to continue straight. Two other road users complicate the picture: a pedestrian pushing a stroller is walking along your right-hand sidewalk toward the corner and will reach your crosswalk within a few seconds, and a cyclist is riding in the bike lane to your right, roughly level with your front bumper, clearly intending to go straight through.
You want to turn right onto the cross street. Your view of traffic approaching from the left is partly blocked by a parked delivery van.
1. In what order should the vehicles at the stop proceed, and why?
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Arrival order alone does not settle this intersection. The northbound pickup stopped first, but a left-turning vehicle must yield to oncoming traffic that is going straight or turning right, so its first-arrival status does not give it priority over you.
The practical order is:
- You - going right, with no opposing traffic that has priority over you.
- The southbound sedan - going straight and entitled to proceed after you, since you are turning into a different lane.
- The northbound pickup - last, because it must cross your path and the southbound car's path.
The common error is to wave the left-turning pickup through because it arrived first. That is a right-of-way gift that can produce a collision with the southbound car, which has no reason to expect it. Note also that the pedestrian may be in the pickup's path, which is one more reason not to hurry it along.
If two vehicles arrive at the same instant going straight through, the one on the right has priority; here that tie-breaker never needs to be used.
2. You are turning right. What must you do about the pedestrian and the cyclist before and during the turn?
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Both have priority over you, and they fail in different ways.
The pedestrian. A crosswalk exists whether or not it is painted, and a person on foot in it has the right of way. Do not nose into the crosswalk while waiting for a gap, because that pushes your bumper into the pedestrian's path and blocks the corner. Do not wave the pedestrian across the other lanes - you cannot see what the southbound car or the pickup will do, and a wave can turn into a collision you caused.
The cyclist. Bike lanes continue straight through the intersection, and a right turn crosses that path. Indicate early, check your right mirror and right shoulder for the cyclist, and let them clear the intersection before you turn. The classic failure here is overtaking the cyclist and then turning across them, which is a right-hook collision and is almost always the turning driver's fault.
The sequence is: signal, stop at the line, check the crosswalk, check the bike lane, complete the turn only when both are clear and the turn will not leave you stopped across the crosswalk.
3. The parked delivery van blocks your view to the left, and the pickup behind you is close. How do you manage the turn?
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The blocked sightline means you cannot treat the stop as a formality. Creep forward slowly after your full stop until you can see far enough up the cross street to judge a gap - a few centimetres of bumper is not a proper look, and a long nose-out can be hit by traffic coming from the left. If the van makes it impossible to see, the safe answer is to wait for a gap you can verify or to choose a different route; pulling out on the assumption that the lane is empty because you cannot see it is how right-angle collisions happen.
As for the tailgater: it is 12 metres back on wet pavement, well inside a sensible gap. Signal early, brake early and gently so your brake lights give the driver a long warning, and complete the turn at a modest speed so the truck behind is not forced into a hard stop. Do not brake late and sharply to "teach" them anything.
Finally, the northbound pickup may edge forward hoping to beat you. Its impatience does not change your right of way, but it does mean you should confirm eye contact or wheel position before committing.