Jeff Sanders: For some reason, stop signs are malfunctioning

The east/west stop signs at the corner of Joerg and El Portal avenues are defective. Over the last seven years they have almost entirely lost their ability to stop cars. The signs currently stop very few cars. They do at least cause most cars to slow down to varying degrees, but a few cars blow through without slowing at all.

I admit that I don’t entirely understand the technology of stop signs. I don’t know if they work by electricity or magnetism, but I do know that the current signs are becoming so weak that they pose a danger to traffic and to pedestrians. I hope someone with the city will see this letter and make sure these defective signs are recharged or replaced.

One additional thought: Perhaps someone could check that the proper software has been installed in these signs. It could be that the software for “Yield” signs have been placed in these “Stop” signs by mistake. That would explain the vehicle behavior we have observed, and should be easy to fix.

Thank you in advance for any attention anyone can give to this concern.

This story was originally published January 14, 2016 at 12:06 PM with the headline "Jeff Sanders: For some reason, stop signs are malfunctioning."