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Stop sign

Former European stop sign consisting of red "Give Way" triangle inside a circle

A stop sign is a traffic sign, usually erected at road junctions, that instructs drivers to make a brief and temporary, but complete, stop upon reaching it, and then to proceed only if the way ahead is clear.

Stop signs are not generally required at every intersection, but they are often used to control conflicting traffic movements at dangerous intersections which are not busy enough to justify the installation of either traffic lights or, especially in Europe, a roundabout. In the United States and Canada they are commonly used in residential areas, and near places where children play, as a general traffic calming measure. In these countries it is not uncommon for stop signs to be erected on all three or four intersecting roads.

The intentional removal of stop signs from their posted locations is a crime in most U.S. states. Fatal accidents caused by someone removing a stop sign on purpose could also result in manslaughter charges against the offender. The purposeful removal of stop signs began in the 1980s as a college prank and, today, one may find illegally obtained stop signs hanging in the occasional college dorm rooms. Anyone who wishes to legitimately obtain a stop sign for home display can purchase one new from a traffic supply house for about US$75.

One solution to the problem of a two-way stop.

The following remarks concerning the right-of-way rules at intersections with multiple stop signs apply to the United States and Canada:

• Generally, the driver who stops first continues first.
• If two drivers stop simultaneously at stop signs at a single intersection, the rule is that the car that comes to a complete stop first has the right of way. Common sense applies.
• Stop signs may be augmented with additional information such as a plate bearing the legend "4-way stop". This is important, because a driver accustomed to negotiating four-way stops may falsely believe when encountering a two-way stop that cross traffic is required to stop. Since the first car to stop has the right of way at a four-way stop, this driver may believe that it is safe to turn in front of the oncoming traffic. Therefore, if there is only a plain stop sign, the assumption has to be that cross traffic will not stop. "4-way stop" plates are provided on the fail-safe principle that if they are missing (through disrepair, vandalism, etc.) the "more dangerous" message is given.

Stop signs, usually based on the American design, are found all over the world, although in Europe they tend to be used far more sparingly than in North America (with most intersections lacking traffic lights being controlled by give way signs or equivalent road markings), stop signs generally being restricted (on the principle that "familiarity breeds contempt") to situations where coming to a dead stop is absolutely essential because of poor visibility at the intersection concerned. In all countries, the driver must actually stop at stop signs even if no vehicles or pedestrians are visible. However, some drivers practice the illegal manoeuvre known as a rolling or "California" stop: slowing down significantly but not stopping completely at the sign.

Yield signs ("Give way" signs in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand), on the other hand, require the driver only to slow and prepare to stop, but do not require an actual stop if the way ahead is clear.

History

Yellow old-style (1924-1954) stop sign; color, size, and mounting height are typical

Stop signs originated in Detroit, Michigan in 1915. The first had black letters on a white background and were somewhat smaller than the modern one. As they became more widespread, a committee supported by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHO) met in 1922 to standardize them, and it selected the octagonal shape that has been used in the U.S. ever since. The unique eight-sided shape of the sign allows drivers facing the back of the sign to identify that oncoming drivers have a stop sign and prevent confusion with other traffic signs.

In 1924, the sign changed to black on yellow, the predominant color until 1954. Another competing group, the NCSHS, simultaneously advocated an even smaller, red-on-yellow stop sign. All of these signs were typically mounted only two or three feet above the ground.

These two organizations conflicted but eventually combined into the Joint Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which in 1935 published the famous Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (MUTCD) detailing the stop sign's appearance. The MUTCD stop sign was altered eight times between 1935 and 1971, mostly dealing with its reflectorization and its mounting height; the most drastic change came in 1954, when the sign gained its white-on-red color. Red is also the color for stop on traffic signals, unifying red as stop signal for drivers worldwide.

The mounting height reached its current level of 2.1 m (7 ft) in 1971. Although already widespread, use of the MUTCD stop sign passed into law in the United States in 1966. They were later adopted by the European Union as part of their effort to standardize road travel across member countries.

Sign variants

Although English-speaking and European Union countries use the original word "STOP" on stop signs, most countries, and sometimes even smaller political districts, prefer to use a roughly equivalent word in their primary language instead; its appearance is otherwise the same of white text on a red octagon. The few known exceptions include Israel (which uses a solid white hand on a red octagon) and Japan (which uses the local word for Stop in white type on an inverted solid red triangle). Although the word used isn't universally standardized, some commonly seen examples are:

Language	Word	Countries or regions where used	Example
Arabic	قف	Arab countries including Saudi Arabia
Bulgarian	CTOΠ	Bulgaria
Chinese	停 (tíng)	China, Hong Kong, Taiwan In Mainland China, a stop sign is officially defined to "stop the vehicle to yield the passage" (Simplified Chinese: 停车让行; Hanyu Pinyin: tíng chē ràng xíng). Older stop sign pursuant to GB 5768-86 resembled a triangular Yield sign [1], with more red color, so that it was more emphatic. GB 5768-1999 replacing GB 5768-86 (link in Chinese) has adopted the red octogon that would be almost the same as, though a little different from, the Taiwanese stop sign. However, the red triangular stop sign is still used in Japan (see below). In Hong Kong both English and Chinese Language appears on the same stop sign, with English on top of Chinese. In Taiwan, a standard stop sign is in Chinese only. English supplemental plates may be used, but they are rare on the road.
English	STOP	Australia, Canada outside of French-speaking Quebec and bilingual New Brunswick, European Union countries, Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore, United States.
French	ARRÊT	Parts of Canada such as Quebec, New Brunswick and Canadian airports. In Quebec, New Brunswick, and in the National Capital Region of Ontario and Quebec (Ottawa, Ontario and the surrounding suburbs in both Ontario and Quebec) it is common to find signs that are both unilingual French ("ARRÊT") or signs that are bilingual French and English ("STOP ARRÊT", or, more rarely, "ARRÊT STOP"). It is interesting to note that in Québécois French stop signs, the word "ARRÊT" is the noun form of the word "Stop", as in "a stop". In France, the English word "STOP" is used on all stop signs, due to European Union standarization.
Huron	SETEN	In parts of Canada with Wyandot people. Often seen as bilingual "ARRÊT SETEN" signs.
Inuktitut	ᓄᖅᑲᕆᑦ	Nunavut, Canada
Japanese		The Japanese Stop Sign resembles a triangular Yield sign, with more red color, so that it is more emphatic.
Portuguese	PARE	Brazil
Serbian	CTOΠ	Serbia (This is not a Slavic word but merely the transliteration of the word "STOP" into Cyrillic characters)
Spanish	ALTO	Mexico and elsewhere
Spanish	PARE	Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Argentina. (Stop signs are almost universally ignored in Argentina; at best, drivers slow down a bit.)
Turkish	DUR	Turkey
English / Spanish	STOP/ALTO	Along U.S.-Mexico border

See also

• Traffic sign
• Road safety

External links

• History of the Stop Sign in America
• Stop Signs from Around the World
• A Collection of Stop and Yield Signs

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