By Kari Lucin, staff writer

Freeborn County will gradually phase out yield signs at the intersections of paved county roads with township roads, commissioners decided Tuesday.

&8220;If it is paved, it has a higher traffic count, it is the prevailing road of travel,&8221; said County Engineer Sue Miller.

Highway officials from the state and other counties have been cautious about overusing stop signs in the past, but when Miller asked other county engineers what they were doing, the majority of them already had a policy or practice in place to use stop signs at the approaches of all paved roads.

&8220;Stop signs in and of themselves do not make an intersection safer,&8221; Miller said. &8220;Overusing stop signs can lead to the desensitization of the effectiveness of a stop sign &8212; pretty soon you have a tendency to tap the brakes and keep going.&8221;

Visibility is also a factor on county roads, where the difference of a crop of corn and a crop of beans can mean the difference between clear visibility and zero visibility of approaching cars.

The manual of traffic control signs states stop signs should be used when engineering judgment says they should be, Miller added.

Albert Lea Township and Carlston Township both brought up the issue, as did Myrtle first responders and firefighters, hoping that replacing the yield signs with stop signs would encourage people to be a little more careful on country roads.

And the signs would all need to be replaced eventually.

As roads are being rebuilt, new signs need to go in, partly because of new federal standards on retroreflectivity. Older drivers have a hard time seeing the signs that are currently in place, and the federal government will soon all road authorities that they have to meet higher reflectivity standards with their signs.

Though the federal standards have not yet been put in place, partly due to unclear standards, they will eventually pass, partly spurred on by liability issues facing governmental bodies with signs that may or may not be shiny enough.

Removing old yield signs and replacing them with old stop signs would be just as simple as removing old yield signs and replacing them with new yield signs.

&8220;This is a perfect time to start that process hand-in-hand with trying to meet the new standards,&8221; Miller said.