The Law of the Color Red

thedo — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 04:47:00 GMT

I remember in the younger days of my still-youthfulness some clever folk talking about the rural area in which I grew up as "not even important enough to have a stoplight."

These folk spoke pejoratively, as if any town small enough were not important enough, not progressed, not civilized enough. Your town is backward! Only important people can be managed and regulated by three alternating colors, these folk thought. And the misguided mind I happened to be at times in my youth I believed them! Stoplights cost money, halted lots of traffic, and displayed a cold, charcoal grandeur among the city's otherwise beautiful landscape. Where was my town's grand landmark to bring about the screeching of stopping cars, the crashing of red-light collisions, and the financing of the local government through failure to stop according to the Law of the Color Red fines?

I remembered these youthful memories today upon reading a new report I'm editing at work, dealing with red light running. And I remembered reading recently about how some cities have opted to forgo entirely traffic sign regulation. No stop signs. No yield signs. No Law of the Color Red. Traffic navigation was to be left entirely up to the free association of the cities' people. What chaos, a firm follower of the Law of the Color Red, must think! No colors to tell people when to go, when to stop? Think of the discombobulation, or the snail-like speed traffic must move at to make sure not to bump and harass itself.

How, this report asks, can we decrease red light running? prevent crashes? decrease horrible traffic incidents?

And some have the audacity to say: Let the people move as they please, let them figure it out; remove these colors of obstruction!

You know, the irony, is these magical cities of freedom are actually working, with few incidents, no tragic ones, and steady flows of traffic moving faster than before. I think of those clever folk and how I'm glad I grew up in an area without stoplights. We were allowed to drive in a freer manner, to associate with other traffic in a sensible manner (albeit we still had our share of stop signs).

Apropos Austrian Aphorisms : free driving

The Law of the Color Red