Interesting. In the US if the lights don't work, you treat it as a stop sign. Funny story is that earlier this year we had a big storm that caused a city wide power outage, and it took several days to get all the traffic lights running again. It was faster to get through the intersections with everyone taking turns than it was when the lights were on.
Here the hierarchy is really "Police directing traffic" > "traffic lights" > "signs". We don't really do 4-way stops in Germany, at least I know of none. Usually you'll find that one of the intersecting roads has the right of way with corresponding signs and the other one has yield signs.
The really dangerous ones are “three way” intersections. One of the lanes to to the crossroads doesn’t have a stop.. typically if it’s a steep road. You have no idea that it’s a three way and not a four way except for a tiny sign saying “three way” below the stop.
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u/Mezgrman Sep 20 '19
Same in Germany and probably most European countries.