Controlled Chaos: European Cities Do Away with Traffic Signs ...
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World Systems @ KSU
50 members,842 bookmarks
The group for students of ANTH 522: World Systems at Kansas State University
Bookmark History
Saved by 6 people (1 private), first by anonymouse user on 2006-11-19
- Ratbeard on 2007-10-04 - Tags emergence , interesting , share
- Abo46n2 on 2007-05-29 - Tags ksuanth , rules , structures
- Mwesch on 2007-05-29 - Tags ksuanth , rules , structures
- Lampertina on 2006-12-19 - Tags cars , hans_monderman , innovation , traffic
- Nianox on 2006-11-21 - Tags free , news
Public Sticky notes
"The many rules strip us of the most important thing: the ability to be considerate. We're losing our capacity for socially responsible behavior," says Dutch traffic guru Hans Monderman, one of the project's co-founders. "The greater the number of prescriptions, the more people's sense of personal responsibility dwindles."
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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.
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The result is that drivers find themselves enclosed by a corset of prescriptions, so that they develop a kind of tunnel vision: They're constantly in search of their own advantage, and their good manners go out the window.
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traffic psychology: Drivers will force the accelerator down ruthlessly only in situations where everything has been fully regulated. Where the situation is unclear, they're forced to drive more carefully and cautiously.
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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.
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They want drivers and pedestrians to interact in a free and humane way, as brethren -- by means of friendly gestures, nods of the head and eye contact, without the harassment of prohibitions, restrictions and warning signs.
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It may sound like chaos, but it's only the lesson drawn from one of the insights of traffic psychology: Drivers will force the accelerator down ruthlessly only in situations where everything has been fully regulated.
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"We're getting rid of the division between cars and pedestrians."
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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."
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