It seems people
are driving too fast in some towns in the Netherlands. Local town councils are
hard at work trying to think up ways to combat this dangerous problem.
What ideas
have they come up with so far, you ask? A stronger police presence? Higher
fines for speeding? More traffic cameras?
How about
removing all the traffic signs. You
know the ones. They’re those pesky signs that give you useless, distracting information like:
“Watch out
for pedestrians!”
“Oncoming
traffic!”
“Train
crossing!”
I read
about this in last week’s newspaper but I was so busy practicing my
acceptance speech for when I win X-Factor (okay, not really – see here) that I’m
only getting to share this piece of genius news with you today.
According
to an article in the NRC Handelsblad,
the thinking is that when people feel uncertain
they have a natural tendency to slow down.
I’ve been
uncertain for most of my life and I can tell you that it has
only ever made me want to run away. The faster, the better.
The NRC article cited a few people who were
skeptical about the proposed plan to deliberately toy with motorists’
confidence. A student who was asked for her opinion said she thought removing
the signs might actually make things “dangerous.” But she’s probably just being
silly.
The article
ended with a quote from a “traffic psychologist” (Imagine that conversation: “Hi
what do you do?” / “Oh me, I’m a psychologist” / “Oh how interesting. Can you
analyze me?” / “Not unless you’re a 4x4.”). He seemed to be against removing
the signs and said that instead, residents in the affected towns should come up
with their own plan.
Yes, in
matters of life and death I think we should definitely always put it to a vote.
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| Schipluiden, one of the towns considering scrapping traffic signs. Maybe they should just scrap traffic and go back to horses. Photo from midden-delfland. |