Several more all-way stops are coming to Johnston County. Here’s where — and why.

Richard Stradling
Richard Stradling/rstradling@newsobserver.com

In an effort to improve safety, the state occasionally adds a couple of stop signs to a rural crossroads to make it an all-way stop.

Now the N.C. Department of Transportation is planning to create several new four-way stops in Johnston County in the coming months. NCDOT hired a contractor to install the signs needed to bring all traffic to a stop at nine rural intersections where only drivers on one road stop now.

The common type of crash at these intersections involves drivers pulling out in front of others that don’t have to stop, according to NCDOT. Requiring drivers on both roads to stop reduces the number and severity of crashes.

In 2010, NCDOT studied 53 intersections that had been converted and found that all-way stops reduced crashes by 68% and crash deaths and injuries by 77%.

The Johnston County intersections that will become all-way stops by next spring are:

▪ U.S. 701 at Stewart Road

▪ N.C. 50 at Woods Crossroads Road

▪ N.C. 39 at Little Devine Road/Browns Pond Road

▪ N.C. 39 at N.C. 231

▪ N.C. 222 at Antioch Church Road

▪ N.C. 96 at Earpsboro Road

▪ N.C. 231 at N.C. 222/Buck Road

▪ N.C. 242 at Tarheel Road

▪ N.C. 42 at Thanksgiving Fire Road

The contractor, Highway Traffic Control Inc. of Durham, will erect signs near each intersection in advance to let drivers know the change is coming, according to NCDOT.

Traffic engineers say not only are four-way stops cheaper than traffic signals, they’re also more predictable for drivers and help regulate traffic better on rural roads.

But sometimes the all-way stops are a temporary measure. NCDOT made the intersection of N.C. 42 and N.C. 96 east of Clayton an all-way stop in 2019 but plans to replace the signs with a roundabout. Construction of the roundabout is expected to begin next spring.

There had been 37 crashes at the intersection in the previous five years, according to NCDOT. About 75% of them occurred when drivers on N.C. 96 pulled into traffic on N.C. 42, which did not have to stop.

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