Supplemental Signing for Stop Signs Phase 2

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Supplemental Signing for Stop Signs Phase 2

J. L. Gattis / A. S. Brewer / S. Perumalla / L. K. Duncan

The 2000 edition of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) for the first time included a CROSS TRAFFIC DOES NOT STOP sign (W4-4P). To give motorists additional information about which traffic streams were not required to stop at a stop-controlled intersection, this sign also displayed an arrow intended to point in the direction that through traffic was coming from. The response to this arrow-use convention from traffic engineers and others caused the Federal Highway Administration to rescind the use of the arrow on this sign until further research was performed, and the version of the sign in the 2003 MUTCD had no arrow. This research project tested the comprehension of five alternative CROSS TRAFFIC signs, and found that all were better understood than the version shown in the 2000 MUTCD. The majority of those surveyed thought that the arrow shown on the signs pointed in the direction that through traffic was headed toward. The sign preferences of the test subjects were not well correlated with sign comprehension.