Traffic signals: European experts recommend eliminating them

What?

European "traffic engineers" are recommending that traffic control methods that include traffic lights, stop signs and yield signs be eliminated.

Traffic controls outlaw discretion, generate stress and provoke aggression.

And what happens when traffic controls are eliminated?

Left to its own devices at junctions where the lights are out of action, traffic disperses without incident or delay. Free of vexatious rules, we approach junctions slowly and filter.

We "filter", eh? A London cabbie puts it more succinctly:

"You've just got to be a bit more careful, that's all."

Har, har, har. You mean like this?

In this photo, all nine cars were traveling the same direction and the drivers were all highly trained, experienced and highly paid professionals. The only traffic control devices were accelerator pedal-to-floorboard contact.

This has been tried for years in Mexico with a stunning lack of success. I would guess that maybe only 10% of all intersections in a typical Mexican city have any traffic control devices at all. This creates the opportunity to play chicken at crossing after crossing. The only rule is: Never look the opposing driver in the eye. Pretend you don't see him/her and maybe he/she will back off.

Maybe not.

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TAGS: traffic control, stoplights