I've done the stop sign thing a few times. My biggie was when power was out and all the traffic signals defaulted to flashing red.
Now, I KNOW this means the same thing as a stop sign, with the same rules of right-a-way.
husband would sit there and finally turn to me...."It's not going to get any greener, hon!"
I have my moments in driving situations. When I got back stateside from nearly 8 years in Germany, I nearly got creamed by a city bus trying to navigate a traffic circle. I mean, I KNEW the rules were different. I even got a new copy of the IL rules of the road to make sure I wasn't missing anything.
I STILL managed to pull into oncoming traffic and nearly get clobbered. Good thing husband wasn't with me--he would've first had a fit and then ridden my rear end for months afterwards.