Less is more traffic engineering

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.12/traffic.html

An article about a Dutch traffic engineer who thinks the best way to
reduce crashes at intersections is to remove all the traffic control
from them, and make people slow down and think about what to do next.

For example, he put a totally unlabelled roundabout at a major
intersection carrying 20,000 cars a day plus thousands of bicycles and
peds - no signs, no lane markers, no curbs to separate footpath from road.
And they all manage to go through it with peds and cycles and cars all
just mixing. Everyone has to feel their way through, and does.

Zebee

 

I think it would stand a reasonable chance of working as far as reducing
crashes, but I don't think it'd do much to help in traffic throughput.

Would be interesting to do a replicated experiment, with appropriate
controls.

---
Cheers

PeterC [aka MildThing]
'81 Suzuki GS450-s
'87 BMW K100RT

www.dmcsc.org.au

 

In aus.motorcycles on Thu, 09 Dec 2004 08:12:43 +1000

I think the point is that "traffic throughput" is not the point. That
it has been the point, and led to a lot of trouble and made places much
less livable.

As far as I can see, the idea is to get away from the goal of "everyone
gets places as fast as possible and bugger anything else".

Zebee

 

Self regulation. I like it. Reminds me of the type of ordered chaos
driving in Thailand and such places. Very easy to get used to. People over
here are too hung up on rules and the "**** you, I'm in the right, Jack"
attitude.

 

That idea of making the road look more dangerous so people will be more
careful seems to have been applied to many of the back streets, and some
thoroughfares in Brunswick.

e.g. Albion street carries a lot of traffic, being the first obvious
east/west through road for traffic coming from the Essendon direction.

The road is just wide enough for three cars abreast. So they allow
parking on both sides, and you regularly get cars parked opposite one
another, leaving no room for cars travelling in opposite directions to
pass. East of Sydney Rd, they have put inroad narrowing extensions to
the footpath on alternate sides of the road, so that the natural line
for traffic travelling in each direction is to weave left and right.
Just about every time two cars travel in opposite directions, one car
has to give way, but there seems to be no rule to enforce who gives way.

Oddly, it seems to work. I travel it daily, It gets scary, but I have
seen no evidence of crashes. It looks scary, and stupid, so everyone is
careful. When they brought in the 50k limit, id did little to most
traffic speeds. the 24/7 40k/h limit that extends hundreds of meters
from the school is a bit silly, though.

They have done something similar outside the new development at the old
Chef factory. The road, which is part of a well-used rat-run and
carries a lot of local traffic, is narrowish, about three cars wide. It
used to have no line markings, and lots of cars used to do silly speeds
through there (silly in this context might be >30k/h. It now has
parking bays painted on both sides of the road, effectively narrowing it
down to about 8 ft wide. The traffic speeds are noticably slower, even
when no-one is parked there, and the section of road seems to be a lot
safer, because once again, it looks more dangerous.

Back in the old days[1], people needed to look at other road users.
These days, with all the stop signs and controlled intersections, I
suspect some people get lulled into a complacency and don't look at the
traffic, just the signs.

Moike

[1] when I were a lad....

 

So people can walk to the local shops instead of jumping in their car and
choking up highways to get to the mall.

"In West Palm Beach, Florida, planners have redesigned several major
streets, removing traffic signals and turn lanes, narrowing the roadbed,
and bringing people and cars into much closer contact. The result: slower
traffic, fewer accidents, shorter trip times."

Sounds like a desirable side effect to me.

 

I was wondering how it would work for South Australians (one actively tried
to stop me changing lanes today). They're a funny breed.

I spent a lot of time in SA when I lived in Mildura. They drive at 95 in
110kmh zones, but would rather die than let you through ahead of them in a
roundabout.

 

: Zebee Johnstone wrote:
:
: > In aus.motorcycles on Thu, 09 Dec 2004 08:12:43 +1000 Peter Cremasco
: >> I think it would stand a reasonable chance of working as far as
reducing
: >> crashes, but I don't think it'd do much to help in traffic throughput.
: >>
: >>
: >
: > I think the point is that "traffic throughput" is not the point. That
it
: > has been the point, and led to a lot of trouble and made places much
less
: > livable.
: >
: > As far as I can see, the idea is to get away from the goal of "everyone
: > gets places as fast as possible and bugger anything else".
:
: Self regulation. I like it. Reminds me of the type of ordered chaos
: driving in Thailand and such places. Very easy to get used to. People over
: here are too hung up on rules and the "**** you, I'm in the right, Jack"
: attitude.

Hear Hear (or is that Here Here?)

Whatever, I agree.

P

 

A bit of both I reckon.

 

Hear here! (The plea of the deaf ...)

Cheers
Goaty