Originally Posted by
Bekologist
bosh. stay visible and take the right of way if yielded to you at 4 way stops.
I've long ago stopped playing the righteous cyclist at the 4 ways. if a motorist is waving you thru or you otherwise were first to proceed, proceed when you have established right of way.
you need to stay heads up, and much more heads up in my experience in larger intersections where clear right of way may not be yours and there are potential turning conflicts with motorists approaching the intersection at the same time you are, from any direction.
I don't for the most part disagree with this, but the reason I do not usually take the ROW when it is incorrectly yielded to me is not because I'm trying to be righteous. It's because I'm trying to be safe and predictable, to ALL drivers, and not just the one that waved me through. That person may have the best of intentions, but their attention at that moment is focused on me and not other cars. Someone else may not expect me to go out of turn, because they didn't see the wave. Sometimes other cars will go around them from behind, because they can't see why they're stopped. Or cars from other directions will take their hesitance as an opportunity to go out of turn themselves. It's probably reasonably safe to go in these situations if there are no other vehicles around, but otherwise I think it's asking for trouble. I've had more than one close call caused by exactly that type of unpredictability.