BIKE: Roads Gone Wild

[Mike Dahmus]

Patrick Goetz wrote:

> Bob Farr wrote:
>
>>> From WIRED on-line:
>>
>>
>> http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.12/traffic_pr.html
>> Roads Gone Wild
>> No street signs. No crosswalks. No accidents. Surprise: Making 
>> driving seem more dangerous could make it safer.
>>
>>
>
> Um, like how many times have I posted this hypothesis to the list 
> already (usually in the context of employing common sense safety 
> principles such as the Golden Rule of Bicycle Safety rather than 
> blindly following traffic laws)?  Vindication at last.  The longer the 
> delay, the sweeter the taste of victory.  I'm only sorry that I forgot 
> to bet Mike Dahmus a tofurkey dinner on this issue. :)

And still, even today, the only instances where this happens are at 
low-speed heavily-travelled intersections in city-centers.

As I've said all along, this will work in situations where drivers are

1. already used to mingling with other forms of traffic
2. heavily cited/penalized for traffic offenses against other forms of 
traffic
3. better-licensed

Try putting something like this onto an intersection between two 
suburban arterials with design speeds of 50 mph, and a bloodbath will 
result.

_that's_ the part you (and they) have still failed to refute.

(if your argument is that we should immediately somehow rebuild the 
suburbs so that intersections are frequently spaced and design speeds 
much lower, then please just say so and spare me the trouble of 
bothering with a response from the land of the World As It Actually Exists).

- MD