Traffic Laws

Our abundance of traffic laws and regulations represents the greatest victory of the nanny state in America. Ironically, it makes us less safe. A comparison of British and American traffic laws finds the less regulatory British system to be more effective and concludes with a recommendation that we rethink our own laws:

So what am I suggesting—abolishing signs and rules? A traffic free-for-all? Actually, I wouldn’t be the first to suggest that. A few European towns and neighborhoods—Drachten in Holland, fashionable Kensington High Street in London, Prince Charles’s village of Poundbury, and a few others—have even gone ahead and tried it. They’ve taken the apparently drastic step of eliminating traffic control more or less completely in a few high-traffic and pedestrian-dense areas. The intention is to create environments in which everyone is more focused, more cautious, and more considerate. Stop signs, stoplights, even sidewalks are mostly gone. The results, by all accounts, have been excellent: pedestrian accidents have been reduced by 40 percent or more in some places, and traffic flows no more slowly than before.

When you stop expecting people to exercise judgment and take personal responsibility, they stop doing so.

The tendency to prohibit certain actions rather than educate and encourage caution can be seen in many of our traffic laws. Recent pushes to ban cell phones in cars and place cameras at traffic lights are just the latest examples.

Driving on little sleep can be as dangerous as driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Cell phones are just one of many potential distractions to drivers. Increasing the time a light is yellow by a second or two can prevent more accidents than cameras. Most people don't respect speed limits anymore because too many of them are arbitrary, excessively low, or sporadically enforced.

We can't outlaw and punish every potentially dangerous action on the roads. By trying, we discourage discretion and encourage deception.