
At least with traffic, fewer rules make for better behavior - reedlaw
http://www.examiner.com/x-536-Civil-Liberties-Examiner~y2009m9d18-At-least-with-traffic-fewer-rules-make-for-better-behavior?cid=examiner-email
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tome
How about, making people switch of autopilot and actually making them think
leads to better behavior?

And then notice that removing road signs, traffic rules, etc. is a big change
that makes people think. In a place that currently has no rules, you'd
probably see better behaviour if you _did_ introduce strict rules.

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RyanMcGreal
A longer, more detailed essay that actually went into the reasoning behind
Monderman's shared space concept would make exactly this point. When you take
away the signs, lines and markings, you force people to pay attention and
communicate with each other.

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psyklic
From my experience, CULTURE is the most important factor in whether people
abide by rules. If you perceive that everyone follows the rules, then you will
too; if you perceive that no one follows them, then you may not. Similar to
the broken windows theory about crime.

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vegai
RRiiight. Ever been to India?

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lucumo
Yeah, lived there for some time. The traffic there is truly remarkable. It
looks insanely dangerous, but I dared do things there as a pedestrian that I
wouldn't do here.

For example, I once tried to cross a busy street but didn't plan my route
properly (like I would do here) and got stuck. Couldn't move forward or
backwards and traffic was coming to me. I was worried for a few moments, but
then I noticed that traffic just flowed around me. No horns, no near
accidents, no panic, just normal flow.

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nopassrecover
I'm dubious. A recent trip to the U.S. (SF) felt like utter chaos on the roads
and this was reinforced by most cars having at least minor damage.

Contrast with Australia where any intersection of even mild traffic (say
within a suburb) has a roundabout to control traffic flow, and all decent
traffic intersections have lights etc. Speed and red light cameras are
everywhere, everyone uses indicators all the time for everything etc. It
sounds overbureaucratic but it means that you can drive around and know what
each other driver is likely to do. In contrast, the (apparent)
unpredictability and what seems like an attitude of almost deliberate
rebellion on U.S. roads seems designed for chaos.

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gscott
Reminded me of an article I read about driving in Baghdad. A suitable photo
here:
[http://farm1.static.flickr.com/38/82272495_ffe32f9518.jpg?v=...](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/38/82272495_ffe32f9518.jpg?v=0)

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lucumo
There's more cars in that picture than Drachten sees in a month ;-)

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snarkyturtle
While it may decrease accidents, I would think that the increased stress of
going through a town with little to no structure traffic-wise doesn't balance
out the benefit. It's akin to throwing dead carcasses around the neighborhood
to get people to accept universal healthcare; you don't cause chaos and
disorder in order to make it safe. The idea of eliminating bike lanes makes
sense, but eliminating traffic lights and road signs is just too much.

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dangrover
One of the reasons I don't like grocery shopping is the traffic problem:
having to constantly get around people going variable speeds and making random
stops, often times blocking entire aisles. Then if you stop to compare items
in a section, you have to be constantly on alert to see if someone is trying
to get by or access the same shelf. I imagine driving in a city with no
signals/signs would be similar.

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roundsquare
See, thats a problem of going too far in the opposite direction, no rules at
all.

Its about having the right balance of rules. E.g. there should be rules about
what side of the road to drive on, but maybe not about exactly how much room
to give bikers (bike lanes).

Edit: I'm not suggesting that grocery stores create rules about how people
walk around with carts...

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tfh
The problem with traffic rules is that (at least here in germany) some people
don't try to avoid accidents because they think it's not their fault if
someone oversees a sign for example. Eleminating rules brings the
responsability back to everyone..

