European Cities Do Away with Traffic Signs (and have fewer accidents)

[grizmaster]

How's that for counterintuitive? Gotta love when anarchist principles prove true.

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


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.

snip

Strange as it may seem, the number of accidents has declined dramatically. Experts from Argentina and the United States have visited Drachten. Even London has expressed an interest in this new example of automobile anarchy. And the model is being tested in the British capital's Kensington neighborhood.

[liberal N proud]

1. friendly gestures - In the US we all know the only gesture any one will use is the one finger salute

[grizmaster]

3. if this article is true

we might be surprised and Americans might expand their one gesture vocabulary




.... hey, we can hope

[Ravenseye]

2. Talk about something that wouldn't work in the states

It's barely functional with traffic signs. It might be counterintuitive in a small european city center, but in a major american city it'd be a nightmare.

[grizmaster]

4. We might not be able to go with no signs

in larger urban environments, but the principle still stands that with better road design we could eliminate the need for a lot of them. And reduce the aggravation that causes so much road rage.

[Ravenseye]

5. Oh sure.

Better road design, you could eliminate the need for almost all of them. The principle may stand, but it would never work here. We can't even get the money to properly repave our streets much less redesign our city layouts.

[Jose Diablo]

6. They have these circle intersections

you enter the circle by turning right then exit the circle intersection at the other road by turning right. No stoplights or stop signs. You just have to yield to the car already in the circle on your left, but oftentimes that car is also turning right onto the road you are coming from, so you can zip out there when sure they are turning. It works great and as long as you yield to the car to the left everything works out. I thought it was a good solution for the problem of intersecting roads/traffic.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. They work great at moderate traffic levels

but when traffic gets heavy, some roads leading to them can get clogged.

I grew up in a town in England with about 30 roundabouts (as we call them), and not a single traffic light. The town was nearly all built after World War Two, and so had been planned to have the room for the roundabouts (they take up more space than traffic lights). They're still largely fine, but certain ones are now overloaded, and they've had to introduce some lights. Some major roundabouts have traffic lights controlling the entrances to the roundabouts, where the flow of cars already on the roundabout is too much to let people on.

[Ravenseye]

10. We have them here too

In New England they're called rotaries, though i've always called them roundabouts from my time in Real England.

As the other poster mentioend, they work well at low to moderate traffic levels, but if they get snarled...forget about it. They can't handle heavy traffic.

[Crandor]

8. that's all well and good for a town with virtually no traffic

Why do you think traffic signs and such were first created? It wasn't because the eeevil government just enjoys restricting your "freedom". It was because rules are necessary to prevent accidents whenever you have large numbers of fast-moving vehicles.

Anarchism is pure crap, plain and simple.

[grizmaster]

9. the point of the study proves that your "necessary rules"

in many cases aren't. And fewer traffic accidents is the proof that's true.


Oh, and government doesn't have to be "evil" to put up pointless road signs. Within just a few blocks of where I live are two locations that had stop signs added and because of where they are they've actually caused accidents instead of prvent them.

The reason they were put up? Because of one person who made it their life's work to get them put up. And the politicians gave into the moron DESPITE the city traffic engineers studying the site and telling the city the signs would cause accidents not prvent them.

[wuushew]

11. School zones should always marked

the possibilty for car/pedestrian injury is just too high.

[Lance_Boyle]

12. yeah, and they couldn't

double the penalty for having a 10-year-old marijuana seed on your floorboard in a school zone if the school zone was insufficiently marked. Won't somebody *please* think of the children? :sarcasm: