Now, here is a real story, and it is so astonishing (to your Blogress, anyway), that I am going to copy it in full: The London Telegraph asks this question: Is it the end of Traffic Lights?? And it goes on to report that
"Most traffic lights should be torn up as they make roads less safe, one of Europe's leading road engineers said yesterday. Hans Monderman, a traffic planner involved in a Brussels-backed project known as Shared Space, said that taking lights away helped motorists, cyclists and pedestrians to co-exist more happily and safely....Residents of the northern Dutch town of Drachten have already been used as guinea-pigs in an experiment which has seen nearly all the traffic lights stripped from their streets.
Only three of the 15 sets in the town of 50,000 remain and they will be gone within a couple of years.
The project is the brainchild of Mr Monderman, and the town has seen some remarkable results. There used to be a road death every three years but there have been none since the traffic light removal started seven years ago. There have been a few small collisions, but these are almost to be encouraged, Mr Monderman explained. "We want small accidents, in order to prevent serious ones in which people get hurt," he said yesterday.
"It works well because it is dangerous, which is exactly what we want. But it shifts the emphasis away from the Government taking the risk, to the driver being responsible for his or her own risk. We only want traffic lights where they are useful and I haven't found anywhere where they are useful yet."
Mr Monderman, 61, compared his philosophy of motoring to an ice rink. "Skaters work out things for themselves and it works wonderfully well. I am not an anarchist, but I don't like rules which are ineffective and street furniture tells people how to behave."
In short, if motorists are made more wary about how they drive, they behave more carefully, he said. The main junction in Drachten handles about 22,000 cars a day. Where once there were traffic lights, there is a roundabout, an extended cycle path and pedestrian area. In the days of traffic lights, progress across the junction was slow as cars stopped and started. Now tailbacks are almost unheard of — and almost nobody toots a horn.
However, it is not the cars which seem to be involved in the greatest conflict, it is the cyclists and pedestrians who seem to jostle for space. Driving around Drachten, vehicles approach roundabouts with considerable caution – traffic approaches from the left, but cyclists come from either side. Cyclists, almost none of whom bother with helmets, signal clearly at junctions making sure motorists are aware of them.
Thus far, Drachten's drivers and pedestrians have voted the experiment a success.
"I am used to it now," said Helena Spaanstra, 24. "You drive more slowly and carefully, but somehow you seem to get around town quicker." Tony Ooostward, 70, was equally enthusiastic. "Everybody is learning. I am a walker and now you are the boss at the crossroads, everyone waits for you. But at the same time pedestrians wait until there are a number wanting to cross at the same time." Kanaan Jamal, 39, like many people in Drachten, uses a bike to get around. "It is very smooth — a lot better than other towns," he said.
The consensus is that the creation of uncertainty by taking away the lights and even in some places the road markings has worked. "Anybody who is new here doesn't know what to do. They don't know who has priority, the car, bike or pedestrian. It's all confusing, but because of that everybody takes care," Mr Jamal said.
"Most traffic lights should be torn up as they make roads less safe, one of Europe's leading road engineers said yesterday. Hans Monderman, a traffic planner involved in a Brussels-backed project known as Shared Space, said that taking lights away helped motorists, cyclists and pedestrians to co-exist more happily and safely....Residents of the northern Dutch town of Drachten have already been used as guinea-pigs in an experiment which has seen nearly all the traffic lights stripped from their streets.
Only three of the 15 sets in the town of 50,000 remain and they will be gone within a couple of years.
The project is the brainchild of Mr Monderman, and the town has seen some remarkable results. There used to be a road death every three years but there have been none since the traffic light removal started seven years ago. There have been a few small collisions, but these are almost to be encouraged, Mr Monderman explained. "We want small accidents, in order to prevent serious ones in which people get hurt," he said yesterday.
"It works well because it is dangerous, which is exactly what we want. But it shifts the emphasis away from the Government taking the risk, to the driver being responsible for his or her own risk. We only want traffic lights where they are useful and I haven't found anywhere where they are useful yet."
Mr Monderman, 61, compared his philosophy of motoring to an ice rink. "Skaters work out things for themselves and it works wonderfully well. I am not an anarchist, but I don't like rules which are ineffective and street furniture tells people how to behave."
In short, if motorists are made more wary about how they drive, they behave more carefully, he said. The main junction in Drachten handles about 22,000 cars a day. Where once there were traffic lights, there is a roundabout, an extended cycle path and pedestrian area. In the days of traffic lights, progress across the junction was slow as cars stopped and started. Now tailbacks are almost unheard of — and almost nobody toots a horn.
However, it is not the cars which seem to be involved in the greatest conflict, it is the cyclists and pedestrians who seem to jostle for space. Driving around Drachten, vehicles approach roundabouts with considerable caution – traffic approaches from the left, but cyclists come from either side. Cyclists, almost none of whom bother with helmets, signal clearly at junctions making sure motorists are aware of them.
Thus far, Drachten's drivers and pedestrians have voted the experiment a success.
"I am used to it now," said Helena Spaanstra, 24. "You drive more slowly and carefully, but somehow you seem to get around town quicker." Tony Ooostward, 70, was equally enthusiastic. "Everybody is learning. I am a walker and now you are the boss at the crossroads, everyone waits for you. But at the same time pedestrians wait until there are a number wanting to cross at the same time." Kanaan Jamal, 39, like many people in Drachten, uses a bike to get around. "It is very smooth — a lot better than other towns," he said.
The consensus is that the creation of uncertainty by taking away the lights and even in some places the road markings has worked. "Anybody who is new here doesn't know what to do. They don't know who has priority, the car, bike or pedestrian. It's all confusing, but because of that everybody takes care," Mr Jamal said.
posted by Heather at 9:03 PM
1 Comments:
FROM ROLAND WHO LIVES IN NORTH CAROLINA, WHO THINKS THIS IS CRAZY:
Nonsense, the only measure of organization of the thousands of cars moving through the main metropolitan areas of this country is traffic lights. At intersections that are 50 to 100 yards diagonally across with 8 lanes approaching from each point of the compass, it would be suicidal to try to 1. cycle across; 2. walk across; 3. drive across in a vehicle or 4. try to make it unscathed in a military Sherman tank. In fact, I'd probably not leave my house under those conditions. Try it in Whitehorse.
By the way, we are only now at the peak of fall locally and that brings good & bad news with it. As I looked out my window this morning, thanks to that huge leak in our atmosphere that allows Yukon Territory air to assault our are with its arctic chill, the leaves on the trees were falliing like snow. The good news is the beautiful colors that the trees and shrubbery assume; the bad news is that the damned things have to be raked up. Our lowest temperature occurred last night which was a +28-degrees Fahrenheit. Folks in these parts call that cold. They don't like it. (I could care less about the temperature in Summer or Winter. But I do care about what the temperature does to encourage leaf-fall.)
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