Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee had an article in yesterdays paper about road safety measures. Some of the ideas are counter-intuitive but work. These ideas include removing safety devices like stop signs.
Tony writes: “Danger lurks on the road, for sure; but it may not be where we think it is.
Stop signs, for instance, can lead to bad crashes. But a curvy, cliff-side road with no guardrails may have few mishaps.
Whyis that? Buckle up as we take an insider’s look at road dangers,inspired by author Tom Vanderbilt’s new book ‘Traffic: Why We Drive theWay We Do (and What It Says About Us).’
The True Danger Zone
This is no surprise: Intersections arecrash magnets. Half of all crashes happen there, including one of thedeadliest – the broadside.
How do you cut crashes at intersections? Stop signs and traffic signals are the all-American way.
But they’re not a guaranteed defense. Plenty of drivers simply don’t obey them.
Mostof us assume a green light makes it safe to go through an intersection.So we fail to look both ways before entering. It can be a fatal mistake.”
For the rest of the ideas from Tony, go read his article. (By the way, I highly recommend reading Tony every week in the Bee!)