Thursday 15th February 2007

Town abandons road signage

Drivers and pedestrians need mutual respect

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Bohmte

The German town of Bohmte has scrapped all its traffic signs as part of an EU backed project to encourage responsible driving. The 13,000-strong town now has no traffic signs.

Hans Monderman, who is managing the "shared space" project in the rural Lower Saxony German town, said: "A rural town should look like a rural town and not like the Nuerburgring racing track."

"We divide traffic into cars, bikes and pedestrians, and believe that by removing the signs we raise awareness among road users for each other. The fewer rules there are, the higher the risk of accidents, but also it means drivers take more care.

"The only two rules are to drive on the right, and the right-before-left priority at junctions. The only thing that I need to know when I drive to a city, is that I am in a city."

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[anonymous-user]

i really hope this works

[german tony]

Good idea, save the local council loads of money. Which is the point of course. Consider a town without signs showing the non-local drivers where the schools are & thus to take extra care. Perhaps it's not such a great idea after all.

[andyinpembs]

I hope they don't do that in London. I get lost there with the signs already...

[dougc]

Hans said:

We divide traffic into cars, bikes and pedestrians, and believe that by removing the signs we raise awareness among road users for each other. The fewer rules there are, the higher the risk of accidents, but also it means drivers take more care

Does this mean that pedestrians are free to just wander about in the roads?

[MilnerR]

dougc said:

Does this mean that pedestrians are free to just wander about in the roads?

if they don't mind getting squished

[nadirv8]

Very interesting idea. They probably mean: no stop signs, lights, give way signs etc, rather than no directional boards - or at least one hopes.

and yeh, London would turn into Paris if there were no traffic signs.

[supervet]

They introduced a zebra crossing and road narrowing to our village on the A28 a few months ago, since then we have had several near misses and one pedestrian knocked down....this morning. Never had accidents before. I sincerely hope they introduce this idea in the UK.

[MilnerR]

supervet said:

They introduced a zebra crossing and road narrowing to our village on the A28 a few months ago, since then we have had several near misses and one pedestrian knocked down....this morning. Never had accidents before. I sincerely hope they introduce this idea in the UK.

When I lived in york they fitted some traffic calming chicanes, which resulted in cars racing through so they didn't have to give way. There were no end of accidents, after a couple of people were run down they scrapped them. The road has a higher average speed of traffic but it's a lot safer!

You only have to look at how carefully people drive when there's no white line in the road to see that this idea might work. Then again I'm sure that drivers will become immune to the feeling of increased risk and drive more dangerously than they did with lots of signs.

[gasman]

This doesn't look at all safe. They appear to be driving on the pavement!

[kentmotorcompany]

Briliant!!, let the inteligent grown ups work it out the best way to drive, instead of this nanny state where every aspect of our lives has rules, and people just give up thinking for themselves.

[andyinpembs]

kentmotorcompany said:

Briliant!!, let the inteligent grown ups work it out the best way to drive, instead of this nanny state where every aspect of our lives has rules, and people just give up thinking for themselves.

It has to be said though, that far from all grown ups are inteligent.

[mybrainhurts]

Will we be losing signs now...?

Hope we get rid of those useless pedestrian crossing signs...

CROSS ONLY WITH GREEN MAN...

I've spent half my life waiting for this bloody green man...he NEVER turns up

[bunglist]

gasman said:

This doesn't look at all safe. They appear to be driving on the pavement!

I expect that part of the road is a parking layby type part of road!!!!

[anonymous-user]

nadirv8 said:

London would turn into Paris if there were no traffic signs.

hopefully with less dog sh1t

[mmertens]

Actually, Monderman is Dutch, no German, and his ideas have been implemented for some years in many places worldwide, including in some places in the UK, generally with a (very) significant reduction of accidents as the consequence, and also significantly increasing traffic capacity of roads. So it does seem to work quite well. Actually, the idea is too good not to be implemented out of fear for the village yobs.

As regards Paris - dog sh*t ridden, for sure, but actually I found driving and taking part in traffic there more relaxed than some other places... they certainly park better, and don't get hotted up so quickly over every little transgression. On the other hand, you can't insure your car for accidents on the Place d'Etoile, as it seems.... and there are no lines at all on that one...

[jmatras]

I don't remember seeing lane markers on any race tracks I've driven on--well, they actually do at Talladega, not that anyone pays any attention to them--but it sure hasn't slowed anyone down. And man, accidents per mile? Man, running off the road, bumping into each other. On the other hand, it seems the raised and painted curbs on the inside of corners seem to be driven over all the time...

[gentelman]

I'm just trying to imagine that working in the US. When we have to have our fast food coffee cups labeled "contents may be hot" (really?) for fear of lawsuits, I'm thinking not so much.

[skyedriver]

mybrainhurts said:

Will we be losing signs now...?

Hope we get rid of those useless pedestrian crossing signs...

CROSS ONLY WITH GREEN MAN...

I've spent half my life waiting for this bloody green man...he NEVER turns up

You'll find him on the side of a tin of sweetcorn.

[puffpuff]

Have a look at www.hamilton-baillie.co.uk/ for further information on the concept of shared space and home zones

[oogieboogie]

"The fewer rules there are, the higher the risk of accidents, but also it means drivers take more care."

Isn't this a contradiction?