Few Traffic Rules = Safer Roads
“So far, the data seems to support Monderman’s theory. At least one report (PDF) on Drachten’s traffic experiment found a significant drop in accidents and injuries after traffic signals were removed at a busy intersection — from between four and ten a year before the change to one per year thereafter. Traffic also began to move faster through the intersection even as it became safer. “On the busiest streets average times to cross the intersection have fallen from 50 seconds to about 30 seconds.”
There’s a concept called “spontaneous order” popular among many philosophers and economists. The idea is that people are perfectly capable of adapting to new situations and establishing rules of the game for dealing with one another that are better than those imposed from above. The Drachten experiment looks to be an example of spontaneous order in action, as people create, on the fly, safe, sane ways to negotiate their way through busy roads…
But left for the future is the idea that there might be wider lessons to be drawn from Drachten’s experiment in letting people negotiate their relationships with one another with fewer rules standing in the way of better outcomes.”
