I see it a lot where there shouldn’t be any pedestrian activity.

This is a carbrained perspective. If an intersection is designed for cars to the exclusion of other uses, then others are unlikely to use it, which perpetuates car dependency. Even if all cars were electrified, car dependency would still be a massive problem in the US.

Others had pointed the reasons, I wanted to add that you have to stop at the line, and if something obstructs your sight (at stop signs, not traffic lights) you have to go a bit forward and stop again.

For stoplights, the stop line being comically far back is often so buses and trucks have room to make a big turn without colliding with your vehicle. If you're at an intersection where the stop line is in an absurd place, it's usually better to stop there rather than stopping wherever and running the risk of finding out why it is that you were supposed to stop way back.

For stop signs, I have no idea. Maybe it means the traffic engineer was drunk that day or something; IDK.

At a guess, these are for pedestrian crossings. The idea is that you come to a stop before the line, then push out to where you can see cross traffic, then go. Shouldn’t cost more than a couple seconds and is way better than charging right up through where pedestrians might reasonably step out before looking both ways.

And yeah, sometimes these are in places where you might not expect pedestrians, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be pedestrians. Especially in the US where infra is terrible. Moreover, these things are often governed by regulations that hold for all intersections rather than having different rules for different roads depending on whether you think pedestrians are likely to be there or not.

In fact, I’d argue that the fact that you don’t expect a pedestrian to be at a certain intersection is a good reason to have more regulations to encourage drivers to watch out for pedestrians, not less.

It's often intentional to obstruct vision, since it's the only real way of making drivers actually slow down. Even someone willing to run a stop sign isn't willing to drive at speed into an intersection they can't fully see.

That doesn't really require placing the line further back, but it may have been part of the motivation, along with what the others said.

They are set that far back so that you don't obstruct traffic on your right from making a left turn to your oncoming lane. You would be able to see such traffic from the stop bar.

Once you see that area is clear, you can pull forward.

It is particularly important for bikes and motorcycles to obey these stop bars. When stopped just past the bar, on the left side of the lane, a moyorcyclist is hidden behind the fat A-pillar and/or side mirror of most modern cars.

To allow articulated lorries and buses to make a left turn onto your street.

You stay behind the line when the light is red to leave them space, then you pull forward into the junction when you have right of way.

In the US, more often than not, intersections like this were designed to handle traffic consisting of tractor-trailers. Tractor-trailers need considerably more space to maneuver than a small passenger car or pickup truck.

As for the visual obstructions, my guess is some city planner failed to take the sight line of small cars into account when decorating or road side maintenance had been put off, allowing foliage to grow where it shouldn’t.

What you’re supposed to do is fully stop at the line and then slowly scoot forward to where you can see crossing traffic and come to a full stop again. Then proceed according to whatever traffic rule governs that intersection.

Because each state has different regulations for what’s acceptable for road design, and a lot of them are lousy.

My favorite trend is the “right turn on ramp” where you’re angled in such a way that you can’t turn your head far enough to see oncoming traffic, and you can’t see it in your rear view mirrors either. And if you are sideswiped or rear ended, you’re going to break your neck from straining to see if the coast is clear.

In UK it is compulsory to stop at the line, and then you start edging forward. So logically it's further back so that instead of wildly driving into a main road you creep into it. The stop line slows traffic all the way down so they're driving out into that road at 10 mph perhaps.

I know in some places, like Texas, they seem to presume that you have a tall truck. Anyone with even a normal-height vehicle is thereby put at a severe disadvantage, especially when you try to see past the tall truck that has pulled way far FORWARD past the line, just to stop at a red light.

i.e., it is for measuring the size of one's dick, even (especially?) for women drivers. Learn to swing it proud, or else never get anywhere in those places!

I don't think it's that they're so far back, it's just that no one does any upkeep on the corners of those intersections/turns.

For instance in my city there are plenty of stop signs on corners where there may be a large overgrown bush blocking the view of traffic (or even the sidewalk, if there is one) or something like that. Sometimes it's just genuinely set up terribly.

Usually it's just upkeep and maintenance not being kept up with.

If I had to guess, it's likely a weirdly written local ordinance... maybe something that had good intent, like ensuring room for crosswalks, but it's being applied in scenarios that don't make sense or weren't considered when the rule was written strictly for compliance reasons. It's definitely something that varies by city/town.

I think it really depends upon where you live, in my area we don’t really have a problem with trees or bushes at the corners. We usually have a bigger problem with large vehicles parking too close to the corner. Making it impossible to see around them.

Depending on how big the vehicle is it how wide it is I can be a fair amount into the intersection before I can see down the road. Which is really stupid. If you have a large vehicle don’t park at the corner. This also goes for parking lots, if you have a large vehicle do not park in the end spot as you make it impossible to see around you and you’re going to cause an accident.

I live in Minnesota by the way. We don’t really have a problem with bushes trees or hedges at the corners.

A lot of times that's where people cross the street. Want people to stop before the spot people might step out into.

You're supposed to stop behind the line and then ease forward.