Drive Vague

There’s something appealing about removing complexity – and the costs to maintain that complexity – to more effectively improve the behavior of a complex system.

“The assumption is that drivers are accustomed to owning the road and rarely pay attention to speed limits or caution signs anyway. Removing traffic lights and erasing lane markers, the thinking goes, will cause drivers to get nervous and slow down.”

“‘Generally speaking, what we want is for people to be confused,’ said Willi Ladner, a deputy mayor in Bohmte. ‘When they’re confused, they’ll be more alert and drive more carefully.'” – Craig Whitlock, WashingtonPost.com

1 thought on “Drive Vague”

crystalsinger January 4, 2008 at 11:18 pm

Not sure that less is more in this context… Does anyone have stats on the incidence of road trauma in less-regulated place like (say) India?

I usually argue the opposite – the reason why people disobey traffic controls is that there’s no real penalty in most instances if you “push the envelope” a little (running a just-red light, for instance). If we installed tyre spikes at every intersection that activated .25 seconds after the light turns red, you better believe that rapidly NO-ONE will be running red lights any more… 🙂

Jessica

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