Candor and Efficiency

You're approaching a 4-way stop. There are cars at all the other 3 sides, and they are all motioning for someone else to go. You approach slowly, and try to anticipate the time when you'll go, but it's impossible, because there is no rhythm, no predictability. All of a sudden, just as you've decided to finally go for it, a car begins to cross in front of you; you slam on your brakes. It's at this moment, when you suddenly realize you still have your bike pedals clipped in. You immediately fall to your left, blocking the whole lane of traffic, where, luckily, nobody was following behind you. Somehow, while falling, you didn't even manage to kick out even one shoe. So there you are, lying, semi-helpless, on the ground, in the middle of the street, because of people trying to be nice.

As a biker, this happens to me quite a lot, although usually not this dramatic (I usually don't fall over into the street!) but people do often wave for me to go first. While this is occasionally appreciated, it is much easier, and faster all around if people just take their turn. If two people get to the stop at the same time, the person on the right goes first. Otherwise, the person who got to the intersection first looks, crosses, and then passes the turn on to the next person. When people wave for someone else to go first, the pause taken often ends up wasting time on both sides.

Rules should be clear and followed. Directions should be specific. People should not be afraid to offend others by following said rules.