Remove road signs and increase safety!
Huh? What are you talking about?
Well, Bohmte, a town in Germany is doing just that. They are removing all street signs in an effort to improve traffic safety. The concept is that road users will now have to negotiate their behavior with each other, rather than have it prescribed by rules...
The idea being that people will pay more attention to what other road users are doing and hence cause fewer accidents.
Guess what, it works! The idea first started in the Dutch town of Drachten, and since they implemented this, accidents are way down.
Full story here.
- Permalink | Comments (7)
- Posted by: Bob Holland September 15, 2007, 4:00 AM
- Categories: Trends
I was skeptical that a traffic circle could be more effective than a 4 way stop or traffic light. My skepticism was misplaced.
Fewer signs and signals are effective in the right setting.
While that may work in a small town, it would be disasterous in a major city.
Great Falls (and most of Montana for that matter) believe in the same philosophy. There are very few street signs. Here, where everything is in blocks, it doesn't work as well.
I agree with estreka, just look a the chaos that happens when there is a power failure and the traffic lights stop working in any major city.
Small towns are different. I grew up in a small town where we didn't have a single traffic light in town. A lot of corners only had yield signs instead of stop signs and some quiet corners outside of towns had no signs at all.
It worked there because traffic was always light.
It'll be interesting to see if it stays as safe and effective some years down the line once people are used to the lack of signage.
Actually it does work. During the 2003 blackout in NYC - that was the most comfortable drive in Manhattan ever. No bumps, no scratches, no lives lost. I drove about 2 hrs cuz there was nothing better to do and I needed the a/c. Everyone slowed down and was extra cautious.
I agree - I've driven through urban areas during power outages and while it was definitely slower, it was safe and smooth. (Except in heavily trafficked areas it'd be too slow, which is why we have lights instead of stop signs to begin with...)
How are the cops gonna write tickets, though? No rules, no broken rules, no fines. That won't fly in the USA.