Useless and or Boring?

When our oldest son was about three years old he asked me the reasons for having traffic signs. I explained him the different reasons and I remember looking at him and our younger son (who was one month old at that time) with great emphasis on the importance of communication between fellow drivers.  I was twenty-three years old and was preparing for the test for my learner's permit.  Not a whole lot has changed since then when it comes to driving except that my husband thinks that I drive too fast for a woman.  I say that I drive within the speed limit, follow all the rules and am a defensive driver. I mean, I have to be one. As beautiful and breath taking the view is on Route 9W, I hardly get to enjoy it. The morning commute does it to you. You become one of them, the robotic and attentive driver you need to be, because there are some people who love their coffee and want it in one hand while holding the steering wheel with the other. Then there are people who have their smartphones sitting right on the steering wheel and as soon as there is a red light their thumbs are at work.  So what do I do? Nothing. There is nothing I can do. I used to tell my coworkers about the importance of safe driving, I would get the look and the nod you would get from a person who thinks that you are too old for this world. Well, I guess I am, but am not ashamed because I do see signs and think that they are important. Just about twenty years ago, my husband ended up hitting a car, because the driver did not yield. She said that he was supposed to have slowed down, as he knew that she would join. Luckily, no one was hurt and no damage was done to either of the cars. This was a proof that he did try to slow down. When I told this to some one at work, they said that the "Yield" sign was useless and boring. It confuses people. One person actually said that it was to settle litigation in case of an accident. Some people say that there should just be a "Stop" sign or nothing at all. I am not so sure what the fate of the "Yield" sign should be, but I hope that people understand that the sign means that you let people on the main road go before you or else there can be a crash. I end up yielding all the time even though I am on the main road, because people are not understanding the sign correctly. They think that there is room for argument when it comes to an accident. We were in LA a couple of weeks ago. There was one thing I liked about some of their highways. There  actually are stop lights at junctions where you join the highway. It changes quite frequently depending on the clearance. I wondered for a moment if the Highway Dept. thought less of the drivers' intelligence, but then I realized that maybe we should have that in New York as well. Perhaps then there will be fewer crashes instead of one every couple of weeks at some intersection.