The new traffic model's advocates believe the only way out
of this vicious circle is to give drivers more liberty and
encourage them to take responsibility for themselves. They
demand streets like those during the Middle Ages, when
horse-drawn chariots, handcarts and people scurried about in
a completely unregulated fashion. The new model's proponents
envision today's drivers and pedestrians blending into a
colorful and peaceful traffic stream.
I find this article particularly interesting because here in Wexford, on Main
Street, we have exactly such a 'blending' traffic regime... A car follows
patiently behind as a woman pushes her stroller down the street. Eventually she
drifts toward the side so the driver can pass. A truck stops in the middle of
the street and a queue of cars wait patiently until the boxes are unloaded. If
you hear a horn honk, you know a driver is 'saying hi' to someone as he passes.
It's as if the regime has never changed since the middle ages. Wexford still has
the same narrow streets that it's had for 900 years.
cheers,
rkm
--------------------------------------------------------
Original source URL:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,448747,00.html
SPIEGEL ONLINE - November 16, 2006, 02:39 PM
CONTROLLED CHAOS
European Cities Do Away with Traffic Signs
By Matthias Schulz
Are streets without traffic signs conceivable? Seven cities and regions in
Europe are giving it a try -- with good results.
Drachten in the Netherlands has gotten rid of 16 of its
traffic light crossings and converted the other two to
roundabouts. "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."
Monderman could be on to something. Germany has 648 valid traffic symbols. The
inner cities are crowded with a colorful thicket of metal signs. Don't park over
here, watch out for passing deer over there, make sure you don't skid. The
forest of signs is growing ever denser. Some 20 million traffic signs have
already been set up all over the country.
Psychologists have long revealed the senselessness of such exaggerated
regulation. About 70 percent of traffic signs are ignored by drivers. What's
more, the glut of prohibitions is tantamount to treating the driver like a child
and it also foments resentment. He may stop in front of the crosswalk, but that
only makes him feel justified in preventing pedestrians from crossing the street
on every other occasion. Every traffic light baits him with the promise of
making it over the crossing while the light is still yellow.
"Unsafe is safe"
The result is that drivers find themselves enclosed by a corset of
prescriptions, so that they develop a kind of tunnel vision: They're constantly
in search of their own advantage, and their good manners go out the window.
The new traffic model's advocates believe the only way out of this vicious
circle is to give drivers more liberty and encourage them to take responsibility
for themselves. They demand streets like those during the Middle Ages, when
horse-drawn chariots, handcarts and people scurried about in a completely
unregulated fashion. The new model's proponents envision today's drivers and
pedestrians blending into a colorful and peaceful traffic stream.
It may sound like chaos, but it's only the lesson drawn from one of the insights
of traffic psychology: Drivers will force the accelerator down ruthlessly only
in situations where everything has been fully regulated. Where the situation is
unclear, they're forced to drive more carefully and cautiously.
Indeed, "Unsafe is safe" was the motto of a conference where proponents of the
new roadside philosophy met in Frankfurt in mid-October.
True, many of them aren't convinced of the new approach. "German drivers are
used to rules," says Michael Schreckenberg of Duisburg University. If clear
directives are abandoned, domestic rush-hour traffic will turn into an
Oriental-style bazaar, he warns. He believes the new vision of drivers and
pedestrians interacting in a cozy, relaxed way will work, at best, only for
small towns.
But one German borough is already daring to take the step into lawlessness. The
town of Bohmte in Lower Saxony has 13,500 inhabitants. It's traversed by a
country road and a main road. Cars approach speedily, delivery trucks stop to
unload their cargo and pedestrians scurry by on elevated sidewalks.
The road will be re-furbished in early 2007, using EU funds. "The sidewalks are
going to go, and the asphalt too. Everything will be covered in cobblestones,"
Klaus Goedejohann, the mayor, explains. "We're getting rid of the division
between cars and pedestrians."
The plans derive inspiration and motivation from a large-scale experiment in the
town of Drachten in the Netherlands, which has 45,000 inhabitants. There, cars
have already been driving over red natural stone for years. Cyclists dutifully
raise their arm when they want to make a turn, and drivers communicate by hand
signs, nods and waving.
"More than half of our signs have already been scrapped," says traffic planner
Koop Kerkstra. "Only two out of our original 18 traffic light crossings are
left, and we've converted them to roundabouts." Now traffic is regulated by only
two rules in Drachten: "Yield to the right" and "Get in someone's way and you'll
be towed."
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.
© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2006
All Rights Reserved
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