The ACT Government has ended the trial of four-way stop signs in Lyneham and O’Connor. It says that after more than a year of trial that they had not significantly deterred drivers from rat-running through residential streets to Civic and they had not reduced speeding traffic.
The trial was not a failure. Indeed it was a success, in many ways. Nor should the result deter the Government from other experiments in traffic management. As any scientist knows improvements in knowledge come through experiments and data collection. The trial suggests that four-way stop signs are not as effective as roundabouts, which the Government will now install on two of the intersections in question. It appears that restricting morning peak-hour traffic through a no-right-turn sign at the entrance to those suburbs has been as effective, or more effective than the stop signs.
Four-way stop signs have worked well in parts of North America, but were not effective in North Canberra. When combined with an obvious determination by drivers to go as quickly as possible, they probably reduced residential amenity and added to traffic inconvenience.
The stops signs resulted in only a 4km/h reduction in speed. Their removal, though, is likely to cause a return to former speed levels.
Stop signs or not in North Canberra, Canberra still suffers from a road toll higher than its excellent roads would otherwise warrant. A good case for cutting the limit to 50km/h in single-carriageway residential streets can be made out. The difference in slowing and stopping time between 50km/h and 60km/h would have a great impact on injury levels with only minor increases to travel time — provided, of course, that the limit were effectively policed.
Indeed, the policing might be more important than the limit.