Roundabout Logic

The days of the traffic light may be numbered. An experiment in Drachten, the Netherlands removed the familiar green, amber and red lights and replaced them with roundabouts. The result was that traffic deaths in the town dropped from three per year to zero.

What's interesting here is not the outcome, but the rationale behind it. Roundabouts were put in not because they are safer, but exactly the opposite. According to Hans Monderman, a traffic planner involved in a Brussels-backed project known as Shared Space,

It works well because it is dangerous, which is exactly what we want. But it shifts the emphasis away from the Government taking the risk, to the driver being responsible for his or her own risk.

In other words, giving drivers personal responsibility for their safety results better decision making than what government regulation can impose.

Having lived in Milton Keynes and having still-green memories of getting lost on its notorious roundabout system, I am not the biggest fan of concrete carousels, but if they can provide a real-life parable about the fruits of liberty, I'm all for them.