European Cities Do Away with Traffic Signs

[Herman Munster]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,448747,00.html

Are streets without traffic signs conceivable? Seven cities and regions in Europe are giving it a try -- with good results. "We reject every form of legislation," the Russian aristocrat and "father of anarchism" Mikhail Bakunin once thundered. The czar banished him to Siberia. But now it seems his ideas are being rediscovered.

European traffic planners are dreaming of streets free of rules and directives. They want drivers and pedestrians to interact in a free and humane way, as brethren -- by means of friendly gestures, nods of the head and eye contact, without the harassment of prohibitions, restrictions and warning signs. A project implemented by the European Union is currently seeing seven cities and regions clear-cutting their forest of traffic signs. Ejby, in Denmark, is participating in the experiment, as are Ipswich in England and the Belgian town of Ostende.

The utopia has already become a reality in Makkinga, in the Dutch province of Western Frisia. A sign by the entrance to the small town (population 1,000) reads "Verkeersbordvrij" -- "free of traffic signs." Cars bumble unhurriedly over precision-trimmed granite cobblestones. Stop signs and direction signs are nowhere to be seen. There are neither parking meters nor stopping restrictions. There aren't even any lines painted on the streets.

"The many rules strip us of the most important thing: the ability to be considerate. We're losing our capacity for socially responsible behavior," says Dutch traffic guru Hans Monderman, one of the project's co-founders. "The greater the number of prescriptions, the more people's sense of personal responsibility dwindles."

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. Very interesting

I'd sure like to see some data on this. Would it work here? I don't think so. We aren't polite enough.

[rockymountaindem]

2. What a stupid idea n/t

[TankLV]

15. OK - I'll say it: An Accident Waiting to Happen...

[JDPriestly]

3. LA Freeways

Most drivers are surprisingly considerate in my experience. I'm always amazed at how few accidents there actually are. Of course, the smallest fender bender stops traffic for a very long time and a serious accident can slow traffic to a standstill.

[angry_chuck]

8. Maybe you should go to...

Most cities that are growing faster in population than their traffic infrastructure can handle; try to go from North to South (or whatever) and count all the people who will cut/flip you off. In my experience courtesy among drivers is a rarity. The anonymity gained from being behind a chassis of metal makes people feel they are above scrutiny or cannot be held responsible (because you don't know me! ha). Driving is complex and sometimes challenging, which goes against the tenets of our popular, consumer culture. If everyone put transportation into context there would be less anger, I think. I mean sh*t, 100 years ago it took weeks of tumultuous travel to accomplish what can be done in one day of air travel today. Next time you have to wait at a red light, think how long you would have to walk to get to the same place and be thankful you are in your car, even if it is killing the Earth.

[William769]

4. I could just see that here!

The way people drive where I live with road rage, I think I would have to consider giving up driving.

[babylonsister]

5. I love the concept, but I can't imagine this working in a semi-large

town or city.

[jmowreader]

6. Yeah, try that in Rome...

A town with a few hundred people in it can pull this off. I've been to Avery, Idaho, which has neither traffic signs nor traffic problems--of course, the fact that there are only two intersections in the whole fucking town, and the fact that you have to go to Avery on purpose and nobody wants to, might have something to do with it.

But go to Rome, where three million cars compete for two million cars' worth of road, and it's a different story.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

9. But people in Rome don't follow the traffic signs anyway! n/t

[Mythsaje]

7. My wife says they don't pay attention to traffic signs anyway...

:rofl:

[ConsAreLiars]

10. This concept works in practice here in Seattle, at at least one location.

A fairly heavily traveled arterial, not a major one, is nominally one lane wide in each direction, but drivers have for years been self defining two lines of southbound traffic at the light (yes, there is a traffic light). The right lane turns toward the freeway ramp, (during the "right on red rule" as well as during green) and the left lane continues straight ahead on green.

This has obvious advantages for everyone, and although the road divides into two marked lanes once across the intersection, it is extremely rare to find someone in the right line of traffic who does not intend to make the right turn or drivers who straddle both "lanes."

It works in part because the drivers are mostly "regulars," and once newbies learn the local "custom" they can see how it serves the common good.

[seabeyond]

13. now that i think about it. there is a place where traffic would never allow

other vehicles in from another direction. every person realizes this and so we have just adopted you go then i go.... leting a car thru or two or three... knowing we dont have to. i have always been so proud of this one place, that a car is waved in front of another.

i can see the point of this. have to be a smallish community

this is in essence what i was telling son tonight about all the rules. it takes away my opportunity to implement my rules on myself. i am quite good at it. better than the rule makers.

[ConsAreLiars]

16. These are all situations where the sense of community is being enhanced

by the actual practice of acting like a community. It is not the zero sum world that the hate-fear based ideologies portray, and where hurting the other is seen as some sort of a "plus" for "our side." In reality, mutual gain is the outcome of basic decency, "doing unto others as you would have them do unto you." The Dutch experiment has a good chance of success, but it is the sort of practice that will need gets built by the people, for the people, rather than dictated.

[tabasco]

11. The Dutch give me hope for humanity.

Hello to everyone in Holland !! :hi: :loveya:

[Barnaby]

12. This seems to work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFbvLQvuKmg

[dalaigh lllama]

17. Wow. That was amazing!

I wonder how long they can keep that up before one of those bicyclists becomes a flat stanley.

BTW, welcome to DU. :hi:

[schrodingers_cat]

14. The Frisians even have their own sub-language

I went sailing in the area about a decade ago. There are as many canals as streets, it seems. When you get to a toll bridge, a person comes out with a wooden shoe tied to a rope on a stick. With masterful precision, they swing the shoe to the person at the head of the boat, who drops the fare in. So charming I almost can't stand it. Such a beautiful place too. And the pommes frites with mayonnaise can't be beat!

[Sapphocrat]

18. This isn't a joke? n/t

[Gwerlain]

19. This is right along a train of thought I've been following...

for several years, based on observations of various sorts of interactions. I note that * wants a law- the Military Commissions Act- to tell him and his minions what is and is not torture. They always want laws, not to protect anyone, but so that they can figure out loopholes and say they did it according to the rules when they do some outrageous thing or other.

I think the quote at the end of your post is most revealing when the idea is reversed: people who like a lot of rules want an excuse for being assholes, because they "followed the rules." That's the entire point of the game for them. It's not, "how should I behave," but "what can I get away with."

[originalpckelly]

20. Actually I think this is totally related to the recent torture debate...

The President wanted rules to know what he could get away with, people in everyday life want the same rules.

Instead of having the positive intent to only get a bad guy and just out of ones free will choose to work on a method of preventing the detention of someone innocent, they just want rules to tell them how hard they can push anyone.

I wonder how many people might have less road rage if they actually worried about the people they had it against.

Interesting concept.

[Selatius]

21. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, then junk it

Just compare accident rate statistics before and after to tell.

Personally, I don't think you could do this on the LA freeway or any other city with an underdeveloped road network relative to population size and density. American cities are built around people. European cities were built before cars, so the morphology is completely different in many cases.