The focus in the news stories is on the City changing its mind, but the more meaningful “story” concerning reinstallation of stop signs at Coal and 8th/Roma and 4th/5th downtown is that significant attention is being paid to making roadway usage safer, instead of simply focusing on getting drivers from one place to another as fast as possible.

That implementation of best practices in public policy takes time and iterations leads to screenshots like this:

But leading/focusing on beleaguered roadway users itching for something to whine about is about as revelatory as water is wet. “Humans are Whiny: News at 11” is to miss the public policy discussion, although it must be said that KRQE does include the fact that studies have gone into the process which has led to the iterations we’ve seen at these intersections. Good.

Still, if more emphasis was giving to safety and keeping people alive on our roadways than is devoted to the seemingly horrible result in which users have to actually think as they motor/non-motor on our streets, we wouldn’t currently be setting records for outcomes such as pedestrian fatalities.

Suck it up, folks. Saving lives might be a “hassle,” but an inconvenience very much worth having if we would ever slow down enough to think about it.