Momentum is my precioussss!

 Ecovelo has an interesting piece on why cyclists hate stop signs, with particular emphasis on the physics (or should that be biophysics?) involved.

Short version: acceleration is hard. :)

As far as I'm concerned, traffic lights are an absolute stopper as are many stop signs but some stopsigns are judgement calls based on sightlines and traffic densities. OTOH there are give way signs out there that I treat as stop signs...