There is an intersection of a gravel road and a state highway about 750 feet from our shop drive.  We seldom cross it, because we are usually turning onto the highway to come to the shop.  When you approach the highway from either direction you can see as far south as you can see, and you can see north to our drive, which is on top of a hill.  Many other operators who travel that gravel road frequently in machinery do not stop at the stop sign if the highway is clear.  I cannot say that I disagree with them.  If the way is clear in both directions, the time before a vehicle can reach the intersection from the top of the hill is adequate to clear the intersection easily if you remain in motion.  If you stop, it depends on what you are driving how long it takes to get going again and clear the road.  The time is certainly much longer if you are starting from a stop with most machinery.  The highway is marked for the blind intersection, and there is sufficient space for any vehicle to stop easily between the crest of the hill and the intersection from any legal speed. 

We are always turning onto the highway, and it's always a beetch to get it done, so I don't have a horse in this race, but I understand why others do what they do and I think it is probably adding to safety not detracting from it.   I can say that when we had a tractor with a twin disk transmission that always started from first gear, I very seldom came to a complete stop at that stop sign if I could avoid it.  I would downshift to 5th gear and approach the stop at minimum idle, but I would not clutch unless I had to stop.  The accelleration time to clear the intersection by opening the throttle from 1 mph in 5th was much much quicker then shifting through every gear from first.   If I had to stop, I always tried to be starting from as far back away from the highway as possible, and I would take off at low idle shifting as rapidly as possible so that I could achieve as high a gear as possible in the space availible before I hit the pavement, then when I was fully commited, I could crack the throttle and accellerate at a decent rate.  This tactic made the difference between pulling into traffic in first gear or as high as seventh or eighth.