Good call on yield signs. They cause confusion in the indecisive motorist. And a confused, indecisive motorist is far more dangerous than either a confused motorist or an indecisive motorist.
Okay, that was just an experiment to see how often I could say the word "motorist" in a few sentences. I'm satisfied with the results.
Anyway, on the same topic of street-sign and driving related nonsense that shouldn't exist:
In some states in the U.S., every left turn at a stoplight requires a green arrow to go. In other states, it is permissible to turn left on a green light with no arrow, or after the arrow has passed, if there is no oncoming traffic.
This pisses me off in busy intersections, when I'm turning left and the guy across from me is turning left, because we're blocking each others' view of traffic, so neither of us can see if we should go or not. If we hesitate, someone behind us starts up honking their horn, or makes some insane dash around us. If we just go, we run the risk of getting broadsided. I hate this. Stoplights at intersections should be green-arrow only. Maybe it takes an extra minute, but I don't risk death for a left turn.
Is there some trick to this that I should know? I'm from California, where we quite sensibly have arrows instead of deathtraps (perhaps the only sensible thing we do). Do natives develop some manner of ESP to detect oncoming traffic? Or do you just embrace the madness, and live every day to the fullest, knowing that any left turn could end in death? "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die at a stoplight"?