Traffic Anarchy more efficient?

[alexxkay]

Fascinating article in Salon today: "Why don't we do it in the road? A new school of traffic design says we should get rid of stop signs and red lights and let cars, bikes and people mingle together. It sounds insane, but it works."

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Based on what I've seen of daily commuting through (spit) Belmont, this is accurate. The worst problems occur when people try to "police" those around them. Then it all gets into righteous rage, and bull**** happens, as people try to "out-right" each other. I must confess to being victim to this sometimes. If the rule was "play nice and get to your destination", some of this might go away -- but it might require a complete change in how we think about traffic.

And of course red lights and right-angle intersections cause unresolvable problems, like when some lovely person screws up the roadway in both directions by stopping halfway through an intersection while making a left because the light has changed. My recent trip to Virginia convinced me the entire road system there should be bombed and replaced with rotaries. Red lights on hilly roads with 55 mph speed limits just don't make sense -- they almost *require* 60 mph t-bonings and rear-enders. Rotaries, at the very least, would turn these into sideswipes -- a much less serious sort of accident.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

"t-bonings"? I am unfamiliar ith this term...

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

side impact. Looked at from above, looks like a T.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure this would work in highly urbanized, selfish, speed driven areas like Boston.