Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!telly!evan
From: evan@telly.UUCP (Evan Leibovitch)
Newsgroups: ont.general
Subject: Re: Highway Driving Rules
Message-ID: <932@telly.UUCP>
Date: 21 Apr 89 00:28:21 GMT
References: <8904061731.AA21685@ellesmere.csri.toronto.edu> <9111@watcgl.waterloo.edu> <1647@dciem.dciem.dnd.ca> <5822@watdcsu.waterloo.edu> <3098@looking.UUCP> <273@ecijmm.UUCP> <8904181609.AA02831@harbord.csri.toronto.edu> <274@ecijmm.UUCP>
Distribution: ont
Organization: The Open Vapourware Foundation
Lines: 42

In article <274@ecijmm.UUCP> jmm@ecijmm.UUCP (John Macdonald) writes:
>In article <8904181609.AA02831@harbord.csri.toronto.edu> clarke@csri.toronto.edu (Jim Clarke) writes:

>>People in cars seem to view each other as irresponsible idiots more than they
>>do in any other situation.  I've always thought that was because the means of
>>communication between drivers were so few.  ...

>It should not be so unexpected.  Traffic laws and traffic design in general
>seem to be based upon an assumption of incompetence on the part of drivers.

>If you assume
>that drivers are competent, then a stop sign should be an indication of
>non-obvious danger and a yield sign should be used in almost all cases.

>Traffic flow desginers assume that the average driver is not competent
>to handle a yield sign safely.

Don't put all the blame on 'traffic flow designers'.

In my pre-Unix days, I served for a time as a journalist covering municipal
transportation issues in North York. The city's transportation committee
frequently over-rode the recommendations of the bureaucrats who did the
surveys, police records, traffic counts, etc. The committee meetings
frequently appeared to me like the aldermen were making deals with each other.
"You go along with this new four-way stop in my ward and I'll approve one
for you one day." That kind of thing seemed commonplace, as committee
members responded to neighbourhood letters and phone calls, putting
hundreds of new stop signs per year into places where they weren't
justified by traffic patterns or common sense.

Nobody at these meetings represents the interests of those who have to
drive through the area, stopping what seems like every few feet in areas
with no traffic most hours of the day.

It's the same at the regional/county level of government. The only ones
speaking at these meetings on behalf of efficient traffic flow are the
paid municipal 'experts', and nobody cares how they vote.
-- 

Evan Leibovitch, SA of System Telly, located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario
    evan@telly.on.ca / {uunet!attcan,utzoo}!telly!evan / (416) 452-0504
For a dollar you can still buy: A piece of paper with the Queen's face on it