Uncontrolled intersections

    I recently heard about an interesting social experiment involving traffic lights. A city of 22,000 in Britain called Portishead covered the traffic lights at a busy intersection in town as a way of reducing the long cues and waiting times. The experiment lasted just two weeks but proved to be a success. Commute times fell and there were no accidents or injuries.

    Similar results were seen when a city of 55,000 in the Netherlands called Drachten removed all traffic control devices from one intersection in the city. The intersection was converted into a roundabout, and the only signage on the road was arrows indicating the direction of traffic. A year after the change, congestion had decreased and accidents were halved even while car traffic had risen by one-third.

    The logic behind taking out the traffic control signs is that it forces motorists to pay attention to each other, which causes them to slow down. But because there are no formal stop signs or stoplights, motorists do not spend much time waiting, either. These intersections manage to maintain order even without the lights telling drivers what to do. 

    These experiments are promising, but I?m skeptical that they are generalizable to all intersections everywhere. Drivers have to know the intersection operates without traffic lights. If not, they may assume they have the right-of-way because there are no signs telling them otherwise.

Before moving to Washington, I lived in a town called Webster City for a year. The town has a few hundred more people than Washington, but appeared to spend far less money on stop signs. A large section of the town did not have any stop signs at its four-way intersections, and it was not much fun to drive through. At such an intersection, the driver on the right has the right-of-way. I think this law is well known, so it?s not as if there is complete chaos on the roadway.

    The problem I had with it was that not only did you have to look to see if you had to stop, you had to see if the cross-traffic did, too. You can?t assume they have a stop just because you don?t. Driving in that part of town was very stressful, not to mention slow. Maybe this works if everyone in town knows which streets have stops and which do not. I talked to the chief of police in Webster City, and he told me the uncontrolled intersections were not known for accidents, and that he liked them because you could go through them faster. I suppose that?s because most people who use them are natives to the city and know that they are uncontrolled.

    But what happens when an out-of-towner drives through? If you?re approaching an intersection and there?s no stop sign or stoplight, do you therefore assume the intersection is uncontrolled and glance left and right before proceeding? Or do you barrel through, confident that cross-traffic must have a stop? I would assume that cross-traffic must stop if I do not, and I don?t think I?m alone. Unfortunately, that is the kind of assumption that will cause an accident in certain towns.