Is no sign a good sign?
Makkinga, in the Netherlands, may be the first place in the world to proclaim itself “free of traffic signs”. It has signed up with gusto to an EU project testing a theory that abandoning controls to rely instead on hand signals, common sense and eye contact makes for safer streets.
“The greater the number of prescriptions, the more people’s sense of personal responsibility dwindles,” said Hans Monderman, a traffic engineer and the main architect of the EU scheme. “The many rules strip us of the most important thing: the ability to be considerate.” Advocates say that drivers develop tunnel vision anyway, ignoring up to 70 per cent of signs.
The movement to “Unsafe is Safe”, as a Frankfurt conference slogan described it, is not new, but it is gathering pace. Another Dutch city, Drachten, imposes just two rules: yield to the right, and risk being towed away if your parking causes a roadblock. Anarchy? Apparently not.
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The result has been a dramatic decline in accidents. Ipswich and the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea are also trying out the counterintuitive idea, removing signs and blurring distinctions to make for more harmonious travel.