People talk about road rage, but I’ve never heard anyone ask the poignant question, “what causes road rage?” In Europe, they asked that very question. The answer they determined may surprise you! In a some European cities, their answer was to get rid of all road signs, traffic lights and even lane markers!
From the article:
“The many rules strip us of the most important thing: the ability to be considerate. We’re losing our capacity for socially responsible behavior,” says Dutch traffic guru Hans Monderman, one of the project’s co-founders. “The greater the number of prescriptions, the more people’s sense of personal responsibility dwindles.”
This defies conventional wisdom, for sure. Many people I talk to feel that you need more rules and a stronger police presence to stop the other guy, because it’s always the other guy that drives like a maniac. “The individual cannot be trusted!” I’ve heard on more than one occasion. Yet this study proves just the opposite.
Psychologists have long revealed the senselessness of such exaggerated regulation. About 70 percent of traffic signs are ignored by drivers. What’s more, the glut of prohibitions is tantamount to treating the driver like a child and it also foments resentment. He may stop in front of the crosswalk, but that only makes him feel justified in preventing pedestrians from crossing the street on every other occasion. Every traffic light baits him with the promise of making it over the crossing while the light is still yellow.
The key to this conclusion is that we are treated as children on the roadway. This generates resentment amongst drivers, a constant sense of frustration, which stems from, ironically, not being trusted to be courteous and responsible. In our rush to judgment of the “other guy” we never stopped to think what the effect on ourselves would be.
Tags: Politics by dooglio
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