Now this is interesting! No road signs experiment.

[2011G6E]

This is very interesting...won't ever happen here, but it's nice to see some places actually put a bit more thought into road safety than "Slap up a speed camera and that wil fix it"...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...0/uk.transport

Why no road rules rule

A Dutch experiment to scrap traffic lights has led to empty roads and fewer crashes . Could it solve Britain's gridlock?

Britain's choked city streets might be a lot safer and free-flowing if all the traffic lights, bus lanes and white lines were removed, according to new research.
In a complete switch from received wisdom on congestion and road crashes, transport experts in the Netherlands have found that leaving drivers, pedestrians and cyclists to their own devices can be ideal.

Far from generating anarchy, road rage and a trail of death and destruction, taking away traffic controls prevents drivers 'bunching' into gridlock and speeding because it forces them to slow down and take more care.

Experiments in towns in the northern Friesland region found that busy junctions where two or three people had been knocked down and killed every year dropped to a zero death rate when they took the traffic lights away and put a tree in the middle of the street instead. UK experts now believe the same methods could work in Britain.

The unusual traffic arrangements are based on forcing motorists to rely heavily on eye contact with each other, pedestrians, cyclists and bus drivers instead of falling back on road signs and red lights to dictate their driving. When drivers have to keep an eye out for potential obstacles and casualties because there are no lines, traffic lights or lane markings they automatically slow down to below 20mph - a speed where a child who is knocked down is five times more likely to live as one who is hit at more than 30mph.

Now the Government is 'cautiously' analysing results from Holland and other Continental countries where the method has been pioneered to see if it can be copied in Britain.

They removed most traffic lights, all road markings, and all road signs, and found that the place actually became a lot safer, and that people generally slowed to common sense speeds in city streets instead of becoming speed crazed lunatics. Of course one reason is that instead of watching for signs, you actually have to use your brain and take into account all the other vehicles around you...a novel idea to a lot of motorists from what I can see in traffic...

There was also a study that said increasing the "yellow" at traffic lights by just one second made intersections a lot safer, as it gave people a slightly longer time to asses what was going on in heavy traffic, even though you might think one second wasn't much. However, a lot of places rely on fines from red light cameras so much that they actually decrease the yellow timing so you are more likely to be caught out...nice.

[rancidpunx]

Hugely interesting study.
Will be looking forward to what happens if they do decide to try it somewhere in the UK.

[|Nate]

Mmmm I'm already thinking of a traffic light-less Nepean Highway, one can dream right ?!

[Fev]

Zomg! A government who lets its populace look after itself! I like the dutch!

[EDManual]

We do the opposite here, I always say whenever theres another red arrow installed at a traffic light its more dumbing down of the drivers!

Now people are too scared to turn when theres traffic (when there is no signal), or even worse they turn when dangerous as they dont know what they are doing!

In Canada intersection traffic lights turn to yellow flash when not busy so everyone slows and gives way instead of waiting. I like that idea too.

[GTP owner]

So making people responsible for themselves and their actions worked! It is a total contradiction to the Govco attitude that they know what is best for us and will punish us for not obeying thier stupid rules.

[J.Molloy]

I've always thought that traffic flows more fluidly when you do happen to hit an intersection with the traffic lights down, everybody seems to use common sense and take there turn, would be interesting to see it trialled on a bigger scale.
Here in aus? Bah think of all the money they'd lose. No chance

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

There was also a study that said increasing the "yellow" at traffic lights by just one second made intersections a lot safer,

i'm still waiting for someone to try the all lights yellow system they tried on 'the simpsons'.

Molloy is right, the govt would loose too much money.

[EDManual]

Originally Posted by aussie muscle

i'm still waiting for someone to try the all lights yellow system they tried on 'the simpsons'.

Molloy is right, the govt would loose too much money.

They already do that in many towns in Canada when not much traffic. ie night time. Works extremely well I think!

Also turning at red lights works (in canada and US) perfectly too, and the lights dont have to stop the flow of traffic just to have a few cars turn into the flow.

[Geez Louise]

You know, this is what surprised me about Egypt when we went there. The roads were really wide (4,5 or 6 cars across in some cases) and we only saw one set of traffic lights in Cairo.

The cars never stay in the designated lanes and share the roads with Donkey's etc and yet for the nearly 4 weeks we were there....never saw one accident!

You would think with that much traffic conjestion there would be heaps of crashes...but nope! Seems to work well.

[Lightning Strike GT]

Originally Posted by EDManual

We do the opposite here, I always say whenever theres another red arrow installed at a traffic light its more dumbing down of the drivers!

They have done this near home - where it was once free flowing now it is bunched like a pair of old undies and people put the boot into it to get thru the lights as they know they will be stuck there for up to 3 to 5 mins
They removed the left turn with care slip ways and turned them into red arrows and as well tidal flow traffic lights 1 way then the other then back to the main rd etc - very painful

Forgot to add all the locals now rat run through an estate just to get away from the 3 sets of lights as sitting on 40 and going left right and through all the slow points in the estate it is actually up to 2 mins quicker doing this and you come out on the last left turn with care slip way so there is no stopping - and it was the Moreton Bay Council that came up with the new traffic light system

[Brazen]

If you treat people like idiots, that's exactly how they behave.

[GTP owner]

Originally Posted by Brazen

If you treat people like idiots, that's exactly how they behave.

Yeah but you can't fine people when there are no laws....

[Kryton]

Wouldnt work here.
Just look what happens when traffic lights fail.

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by davway

Wouldnt work here.
Just look what happens when traffic lights fail.

I think it always works really well.

[fou_bleu]

Wow, very interesting study! Surely it couldn't hurt to try that out in a smaller suburb in Sydney or other city?

[Dave3911]

Originally Posted by Geez Louise

You know, this is what surprised me about Egypt when we went there. The roads were really wide (4,5 or 6 cars across in some cases) and we only saw one set of traffic lights in Cairo.

The cars never stay in the designated lanes and share the roads with Donkey's etc and yet for the nearly 4 weeks we were there....never saw one accident!

You would think with that much traffic conjestion there would be heaps of crashes...but nope! Seems to work well.

Seems to work well?

http://sphinx-egyptexpat.blogspot.co...e-in-road.html

[tranquilized]

This isn't so much a study in the Netherlands, more like reality. A guy called Hans Monderman pioneered this stuff and there are at least a few interesections that have been completely stripped of markings, signs, and signals for 10 years.

Like this one;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wte5-_gCDQ

One of his other projects was a small country town that had a problem of passing through cars not slowing down. So he stripped the street of all signage, eliminated any speed limit, and landscaped the road. Boom - slow traffic.

But no, could never see anything like that happening here...

[tranquilized]

Another good one, talking with the late Hans himself, he explains the reason for the pedestrian crossing. Same intersection I think;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=Q47umjW7GfE

[Professor Farnsworth]

am i the only who noticed the article was from 10 years ago?

Sunday 30 June 2002 01.45 BST

pretty sure that ship has sailed, rusted, and been scrapped.

[Geez Louise]

Ahh...So it is. It would appear this is very old news...

[TheSneakiness]

Originally Posted by Brazen

I think it always works really well.

BWAHAHAHAHA, are you serious bro? Really?

It makes it worse. People aren't sure when to go, and it usually the overconfident ones who take risks and its the hesitant ones who are too scared to go, which in turn enrages the overconfident driver.

[dimka100]

Will never ever ever even be considered here ... cause our road and traffic authority think they are the smartest in the world ...

But our road and traffic authority has so much common sense that after they have resurfaced a local road next to my work only one month ago, they have decided to dig it up today and install some piping while destroying the previously laid new asphalt and replacing it with these rubbish road bandages ... It's not the waste of money that I'm disappointed about so much that a decent road is now destroyed by these idiots ...

[Stagg]

I don't think they would ever try it over here as well, speed cameras raise a lot of revenue, especially here in Melbourne and when driving down the Hume.

Although still, no speed limits would be a bit scary, wouldnt want to be behind some camry doing 200km/h with some soccer mum driving...

[TheInterceptor]

Would be good if they did something here...at night time at least where there is minimal traffic.

Lots of time is wasted sitting at reds with absolutley no traffic around (generally after say..11pm), and if i run the red it im a reckle$$ driver.

Old article or not, sure is interesting..

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by Rapid_Axe

BWAHAHAHAHA, are you serious bro? Really?

It makes it worse. People aren't sure when to go, and it usually the overconfident ones who take risks and its the hesitant ones who are too scared to go, which in turn enrages the overconfident driver.

Yep serious, it all works itself out.

[TheSneakiness]

Ahhh, natural selection at its best.

[Professor Farnsworth]

interesting article but as i said, 10 year old news.