Route naked

The concept of the naked road consists of the reduction partial or total of the road signs with for objective reducing the accidents.

Philosophy

Philosophy common to these experiments is the responsibilisation of the road users to return them actors of their own security. For that, one reduces indication by leaving only vital information even no signposted information. The had aims are a more courteous behavior and a responsibilisation of each one. One also observes the collateral advantage to make the landscape prettier.

Experiments

The pioneers of the naked roads were the towns of Makkinga and Drachten in the Netherlands in the years 1970. These experiments were led by the engineer Hans Monderman, the creator of the theory of the shared space .

Many cities tried out the concept of the naked road since 2004 and the launching of a European program called Shared space . These cities are located mainly in the north of Europe: Ejby (Denmark), Bohmte (Germany), Ipswich and London (the United Kingdom), Ostend (Belgium) or Emmen (Netherlands). The town planner Ben Hamilton-Baillie who is one of the persons in charge of this program.

For example, in London indication was considerably reduced on Kensington High Street and the fences safety for pedestrians were removed with a result of 60% of accident in less.

In Drachten (Netherlands), one removed fires at certain places. Assessment: “The motorists then showed civility and have even elaborate a simple system of signs in order to give each other the permission to pass, fluxing thus considerably the traffic”. The Laweiplein place in Drachten saw passing 22.000 vehicles by day, of which tens of bus. Whereas they spent 53 seconds on average to cross the crossroads they enters 24 put some today to 36 according to the authorities. In addition, in 2004 and 2005, one deplored only two accidents having made casualties, instead of ten in 2002, four in 2001 and nine in 2000.

At Ipswich, three small streets of the center town preserved only the discrete warnings warning against the illegal parking.

Explanations

To reduce indication to reduce the accidents can appear absurd at first sight, nevertheless that went in a relatively effective way in examples given Ci above for several reasons:

by responsabilisant the drivers, one increases their vigilance;
thus with a red light, if there is a traffic light, the car passing to the red will probably create an accident because the cars will not expect to see it arriving. In the absence of fire, the driver in a hurry will not respect can be not the priority but the other motorists will be more attentive.

Limits

The experiments are limited for the moment to the north of Europe and one does not know yet if that would be transposable in countries of the south. Latin mentality can constitute an obstacle with the generalization of such experiments. Defense associations of the blind men denounce measurements which endanger according to them the life of the blind men.

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