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Its anarchy on the streets

Gulliver | 20.03.2006 15:46 | Analysis | Technology

Authorities in several countries are plundering anarchist principles to successfully reduce road casualties.

As our society becomes ever more complex our ‘representatives’ in local and national government feel they have to make more laws and regulations and implement new controls on people’s behaviour to ensure the safety of the majority. If they did not then very soon chaos and disorder would reign right? Well, as we know in our hearts this is nonsense, it is not laws and regulations that make people care for each other, all it needs is for the removal of all the extraneous impediments to mutual aid. Here is very practical example.

Artist impression of shared street in Exhibition Road
Artist impression of shared street in Exhibition Road


As our society becomes ever more complex our ‘representatives’ in local and national government feel they have to make more laws and regulations and implement new controls on people’s behaviour to ensure the safety of the majority. If they did not then very soon chaos and disorder would reign right? Well, as we know in our hearts this is nonsense, it is not laws and regulations that make people care for each other, all it needs is for the removal of all the extraneous impediments to mutual aid. Here is very practical example.

As the density of vehicles in our towns and cities increased over the last century and number of road accidents increased the authorities started to implement various ‘controls’. (As an aside I have seen the judges summing up in the case of the first pedestrian killed by a car: “this is a dreadful incident and I hope never to see its like again” !)

Initially vehicle speed limits were introduced, and then it was decided to separate pedestrians from the traffic by means of kerbs and pavements to designate where pedestrians should walk. Then traffic lights, various evolutions of the pedestrian crossing, pedestrian bridges, underpasses, and a seemingly infinite number of signs giving orders to drivers: no parking, parking restrictions, not right turn, no left turn, no entry, priority to oncoming traffic, no heavy vehicles etc. etc.

But still we see an unacceptable number of casualties on the streets of our towns and cities. So what should we do? Yes of course, say the authorities – more regulation and control is needed, so lets speed a fortune on speed cameras, traffic calming and barriers so pedestrians cross where we want them to not where they need to.

And still people are getting killed an injured. Our streets are cluttered with myriad poles, signs, cameras and ugly barriers (their likeness to a cage has an apt symbolism).

So what would happen of we tried a radical approach and removed all these devices that and regulate our behaviour and tell us how to interact with each other? Well the evidence is that the roads become safer.

The Shared Streets concept, pioneered in Holland and also implemented in Denmark, Canada and Germany, is based on the idea that if all the controls, such as separation of pavement and road, pedestrian barriers, traffic lights and signs are removed then people will take their own responsibility for moving safely. Because vehicle speeds are lowered to about 20mph, drivers, cyclists and pedestrians have time to make eye contact with each other, to interact and therefore avoid colliding with each other. People will respond to what is happening around them rather than just blindly following the instructions of a sign or the colour of the lights.

In Holland, a reduction of 20% in road accidents has been reported where these ideas have been implemented. Wiltshire County Council has tested simply removing white lines from the centre of urban roads and found that accidents fell by 35 per cent.

Kensington & Chelsea Council is currently implementing the system on Exhibition Road. Ben Hamilton-Baillie, an urban designer who has helped to draw up the plans for Exhibition Road, said that motorists would still have full access to the road, but it would be like driving through a campsite. “You don’t need signs everywhere on a campsite telling you to give way or stop or slow down, because its blindingly obvious what you need to do,” he said.
Drivers would also be more responsible for any accidents as they would no longer be able to argue that people “just stepped out into the road”. Drivers will save time by no longer having to wait for a green light if there is a gap at the junction.
So next time somebody starts banging on about the need for the state to make rules and regulations in order to avoid chaos and mayhem you can cite this example back at them. Then reclaim the streets!



Gulliver

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Cool

21.03.2006 13:59

What a cool idea, and we take power back from the authorities and put it back in our hands. And because we are no longer separated, we become a community once more, Great. So when do we start this in Nott's, you can't ignore a 20 percent cut in casualties

Ped


educating UK drivers

21.03.2006 16:50

I think part of the UK car driving test should be to ride around a busy city on a bike just to educate drivers to the risks, and more acceptance by the cops that the cyclist is always right.
My impression of cycling around Holland is that is completely different from here due to it's more widespread tradition of bikes. Virtually everyone, kids to pensioners, has a bike and they use them. And I was told by several motorists if a bike hits a car - even if it is the cyclists fault - then the car driver will be arrested and probably charged. All the motorists there are also cyclists and so pay more attention to bikes anyway. In the Dutch cities the pedestrians and trams seem to be a bigger danger, I got my front wheel stuck in a tram line rut as trams approached from both directions and the trams drivers had no intention of slowing down though they certainly saw me.

So it's not quite the same as here, but I still think the shared streets concept is brilliant. I live in a new town where it is possible to walk anywhere by paths without crossing roads. I've seen the dirt roads tarmaced over, only to be covered in speed-bumps - there are ten within 300 metres from my house - and traffic-light junctions being replaced by roundabouts which later get traffic-lights added. They would have been as well leaving dirt roads.

CycloPaul


'Think Bike'

05.04.2006 12:05

Don't really know how far these signs spread through Nottingham, but 'Think Bike?' What sort of sign is that at a roundabout?? Its a perfect example of pointless signs. Its a distraction, plain a simple, that actually lessens the chance of you 'seeing bike' because your too busy pondering the signs stupidity. Roundabouts add an element of extra danger to drivers, so i would have thought that people are less likely to hit bikes there than when changing lanes on a monotonous journey down a ring road etc... Everyone looks right, if you don't there is bound to be a problem, whether it involves a car, cyclist, van, whatever.
--its just an effort by the local council to be seen to be doing something, therefore justifying why they are there in some peoples minds.

Nick