Places where I've seen it, people who have the right of way take that to mean they get to play "traffic cop". E.g., at a 4-way stop the "extra polite" person who gets there first, instead of going through the intersection first, waits and waves the person who does not have the right of way to go through first, which makes that person (and everyone else) confused, and then causes a lot of slowdown, frustration, etc. Of course only happens in certain locales, where it's part of the local driving culture.

Or they slam on the brakes at the end of what should be a merging ramp or lane because the fore and aft distances to the other traffic that were good enough for the prior N people would be too close for them.

Well to be fair the distance most people feel fine with is not near what is safe.

this has always bothered me.

if you have the right of way, and you do not take the right of way, in most cases you are effectively disobeying traffic rules and disrupting the flow of traffic.

In rural areas where this is common there isn't traffic. Thus the politeness doesn't cost you anything. Also in those rural areas it is somewhat common for someone with the right away to have a reason to drive much slower than the speed limit and so giving up your right away makes things better for everyone - the other person doesn't have to try to pass you latter.

When there is traffic you giving up the right away is impolite to the person behind you and shouldn't be done. unless traffic is so heavy that you won't be able to move, and so you should give you your right away to someone who can go.

> Also in those rural areas it is somewhat common for someone with the right away to have a reason to drive much slower than the speed limit

Why does living in a rural area make someone more likely to have a reason to drive below the speed limit?

Because they often are farmers with equipment in tow that is instable at speed. 20mph (40kmh ?) Is too fast for a hay wagon.

> who will approach a 4-way intersection and stop even when they don't have a stop sign and the perpendicular street does

Not the main point but I never liked how traffic signs aren't affirmative sometimes. In the case of the 4-way usually the stopping direction have a stop sign with a missing "All Way" sign below it. But thats not required in all jurisdictions. Nor is the non-stopping direction 100% sure their stop sign is still visible (shrubs, weather, etc) and can proceed at regular speed.

I'm sure there are a ton of reasons for the way things are, I just think the outcome is you can't really ever be 100% sure what the correct thing to do is without slowing down and observing.

Speaking as someone who recently blew through a 4-way stop with other cars waiting, because the setting sun made it hard to see the stop sign, yeah, there are no shortage of human factors at play.

Stop signs are the shape they are so you can recognize them from the reverse for this purpose

Hard to recognize them from the reverse when they're hidden behind a bush!

Participating in traffic all comes down to being as predictable as possible, I think.

Yep. I prefer the driving rule, "Don't be nice, be predictable."

That is, don't deliberately be mean, but don't extend any courtesy where doing so would come at the cost of being predictable.

Yes, but in a way that's obvious to other drivers.

Driving decisively is more important to overall safety than driving defensively.

*and people on foot or bicycles