Posted 11/10/2006 05:59:00 PM by Douglas

Absolutely brilliant depiction of what happens when a municipality stops focusing on collecting traffic fines and actually focuses on driver and pedestrian safety. They get rid of stupid traffic lights and their roadway fatalities drops significantly.

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.

What a novel concept. Slow people down where they're actually paying attention to the road, and they get through traffic faster than they do by stopping every block at a stoplight. What a concept! Now, let's discuss why this will never work in America:

"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.

What?!? I'm responsible for operating a moving vehicle that could kill me or others?!? Surely it's the government's fault for not putting up a sign or something. I can't be held liable for running over that other driver. I was simply driving to work. And changing a CD. And putting on eye-liner. And eating a burrito. How is that my fault?

In short, if motorists are made more wary about how they drive, they behave more carefully, he said.

What?!? How dare he suggest that I pay attention to the road and vehicle I'm operating. I'm an American! That's why I pay insurance. Helena, drive it home:

"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."

Imagine that. Pull your head out of your ass, drive the car, slow down, yet still get around town quicker. Yet another example as to why Americans are more concerned with appearing to be safe as opposed to actually being safe.