In what some consider to be a move of madness, a city centre road has been stripped of every marking and road sign in a bid to make motorists drive more carefully. Pedestrian crossing have gone, as have white lines indicating lanes, in the hope that drivers will slow down to get a better idea of what they are doing – and what they should be doing.
The ‘naked road’ as it now has the moniker of, is lined with pubs and restaurants and apparently is in Southampton. One motoring group spoke out against it, claiming that it is actually far more likely to cause accidents than stop them from happening.
The idea behind it has been thought out – to a fashion. The theory goes something like pedestrians won’t simply walk out into the road, whilst motorists won’t unfailingly speed around too fast in what is actually a built up area.
A council spokesperson said “by creating uncertainty, all road users are forced to pay attention and interact with each other”. Now, I might have this wrong, but when we’re driving a car, we are meant to pay attention anyway right? Not only that, but if it’s a built up area, what about when it’s late and drunks are simply staggering into the road willy-nilly? I’ve passed through my city at night and seen this happen – without road signs being taken away!
Apparently though, such schemes have worked in the Netherlands – namely in Drachten. What makes this case particularly interesting is that the story goes that road deaths were cut down to zero. Impressive, I’m sure you’ll agree. However, how many more road safety lessons do children in Drachten get? How tough is their driving test? I’m sure there are more factors than just the scheme at play here.
Of course I wouldn’t argue with a scheme that saves lives – as long as, for the most part at least, we can carry on with the rest of our journeys in a safe, expedient and efficient manner. When this stops being a reality (and some will say it already has) due to weird legislation, then we have a problem.
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