Those who remember Duke professor John Staddon’s 2007 presentation on the overabundance of stop signs, speed limits, and traffic controls on American roads might appreciate this excerpt from the final paragraph of Mark Steyn’s latest “Happy Warrior” column in National Review:

Crossing the border a few weeks back, I found myself at an intersection of two lightly traveled rural roads in upstate New York: There was a blinking red light, a “Stop” sign, a “Stop Sign Ahead” sign, and, for good measure, a left-side “Stop” sign, too. And, not for the first time, I reflected that that was four times as many traffic-control devices as one would see at a comparable junction almost anywhere in the developed world. There, too, is a sign of the times. A spendaholic nation has more and more “Stop” signs. Because we can’t stop.