German Town Scraps Road Signs to Increase Safety

[arekzjawin]

Not the latest news but worth reading:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...505246,00.html

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007...n_town_scr.php

[unL33T]

I do not think that the car drivers are going to be quite as careful at navigating the "shared space" as the cyclists and pedestrians that now have no laws/regulations/signs to protect them...

Even if most responsible people might be more careful there's still going to be the people that just don't give a **** and do whatever they like. Although with those people maybe signs wouldn't have helped anything either.

[Rotten_Ronnie]

Will that work when there's six inches of snow and someone steps in front of your car while oh his blackberry?

The new bike lane across Wellesley street has seen right turning cars blocking the traffic lane in order not to encroach on pedestrian and cyclist traffic these days. I much preferred the older, shared lane concept. If you hit a cyclist, you'd get charged, fined and your insurance would go up. Can you imagine pedestrians on the same road surface? Drive through Kensington Market and see how quickly you get through it.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space

Ooh! I like this bit:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...448747,00.html

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.

Still more:

"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.

[Android Cat]

Sidewalks will disappear, as will the asphalt, replaced by cobblestones.

Mmm, I'm sure that riding on wet cobblestones and having to brake will be fun.

[fastar1]

I do not think that the car drivers are going to be quite as careful at navigating the "shared space" as the cyclists and pedestrians that now have no laws/regulations/signs to protect them...

Even if most responsible people might be more careful there's still going to be the people that just don't give a **** and do whatever they like. Although with those people maybe signs wouldn't have helped anything either.

I cycle daily, and almost all motorists are more scared to hit me than I am to get hit. Sometimes they take stupid risks to give 6 feet of space around me, it's bizarre.

[Rotten_Ronnie]

I cycle daily, and almost all motorists are more scared to hit me than I am to get hit. Sometimes they take stupid risks to give 6 feet of space around me, it's bizarre.

The streetcar, a cyclist and a timid driver. I call it a traffic jam.

[fastar1]

Too true. And then people blame the cyclist.

[Rossi86]

Europe how I love thee! At least some people are thinking and applying common sense. Overwhelming motorists with pointless rules and traffic tickets for things that they can do safely just pisses them off, it doesn't make them better drivers.

If Fantino and his mafia crew found out about this, the'll be pushing the federal government to declare war on Germany & Holland!