No more traffic controls
Controlled Chaos: European Cities Do Away with Traffic Signs - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News
I'm seeing many articles of this sort with the supposed "non-intuitive" fact that if you remove all the traffic controls from a street/intersection, then the safety actually increases. This is no surprise to me, because I think its pretty damn obvious that people are going to drive more carefully without street signs. But the question no one seems to address is what impact this has on traffic? Maybe this works in towns where there are only a few cars on the road and traffic is not an issue, but traffic control devices don't just exist to improve safety, they exist to increase road throughput! This appears like a recipe for gridlock! I can't say for sure that this is the case, however, because NONE of the press accounts have read have said anything about the impact this has had on traffic. They didnt say it got worse, they didn't say it got better -- they are simply silent on the question. I know it is old hat to complain about how useless our news media is these days, but really. They are useless.
