[UKgirl]

Well at least that is what is being experimented in seven European cities, including Norwich in the UK.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spi ... 47,00.html

What a unique idea!

Can it work?

[Keegos]

Jesus wept! The weirdos are as the Tafffs.

Two turds on seperate sides of the nation is the taffs and the mustard loving tramps.

[NogginGrog]

Well it has often been said that the safest thing you could do in a car is take out the airbags and seat belts and fit a 6 inch steel spike in the centre of the steering wheel. Of course such a suggestion was generally made in jest.

Problems with the planned scheme as I see it are as follows:

1. What if you do have an accident (they will still happen human beings are falible) - who will be in the right or in the wrong if there are no rules the lawyers could be arguing about responsibility for months or years. Now the legal profession will of course love this but I am not so sure about the insurance companies and you can be sure our insurance premiums would go through the roof.

2. Journey times within towns without rules will drastically lengthen as most people will not feel confident to drive at more than 20mph just in case someone pulls out from somewhere. Now in central London this might not matter so much as it is probably impossible to do even 20mph anyway but if you are making a longer journey across country then it means that every town/village you come to you will have to slow down to 20mph. Now that might be fine in Australia or Canada but in the England where towns are hardly ever separated by more than 2 or 3 miles of road then probably half your entire 200 mile journey might be made at less than 20mph. In other words traveling by road will take almost as long as it did in 1800. Now of course you will say that motorways will be exempt from this - the trouble is the motorway networks is not that comprehensive and many journeys that do not simply follow the motorway spokes radiating out from London require you to use minor roads.

3 What about the decency and politness? You see enough pushy drivers on the road these days who show little regard for other road users. If you give them a blank cheque will they simply just take further advantage of the situation. Will the SUV drivers and others in large "solid" vehicles just throw their weight around and attempt to intimidate the small car drivers. In which case that should encourage more people to own big heavy vehicles.

I think this whole idea is badly thought through - It might work in countries where the driving culture is less competitive - such as Scandanavia but I have severe doubts that it would work in the UK or a whole host of other places. I suspect that this is yet another "one size fits all" pipe dream that fails to take into consideration varying national conditions.

[wakeyboy]

Lunacy

[Caer Ibormeith]

Lunacy

Yes. Are they insane?

[SilverMiniCooperS]

European traffic planners are dreaming of streets free of rules and directives. They want drivers and pedestrians to interact in a free and humane way, as brethren -- by means of friendly gestures, nods of the head and eye contact, without the harassment of prohibitions, restrictions and warning signs.