[aoloe]

From what I understand, the difference is:

- In Europe a stop sign means that you have to wait until the way is clear. Of course, you normally don't have stops on more than two of the roads crossing. (Theoretically, you can wait forever at a stop, since people on the other roads won't stop and let you through)

- In North America (I've seen it in Canada), you have stop signs on all four roads crossing and you get through in a first in first out turn.

It seems to me that

- the US uses stop signs as a way to slow down the traffic (so, no real meaning), but

- in Europe it does have a clear meaning: "it's dangerous to drive over a crossing without halting". Not only you have to be careful because you have no right of way (the "give way" sign) but you really have to stop and look at the traffic, mostly due to poor visibility (or high difference in speed).

[nommm-nommm]

There's two types of stop signs in the US- normal stop sign and a 4 way stop. 4 way stops are marked as such. Normal stop signs work "like Europe."

In practice stop signs don't work at all in the US. People roll through them, sometimes not even slowing down and can't understand whoo goes first at 4 way stop. So they either sit at the stop sign frantically waving on all cars that are approaching until no more cars are approaching or they just go at some random time or they just blow through the sign altogether.

Anyways, 4 way stops aren't just for slowing down traffic, though they are sometimes used that way. They are for when you have two roads coming together that both have roughly the same amount of traffic (no 'main' road) but don't want to put in a light.