Death by Stop Sign

An article in The Atlantic about traffic safety lays the blame on the proliferation of traffic signage. The author argues that too much signage actually makes us less safe, because the signs distract driver attention from the roadway. He makes a comparison to traffic rules in his native Britain, which evidently has a lower traffic fatality rate, despite, in the author's estimation, generally fewer traffic rules and signs.

There is a stretch of North Glebe Road, in Arlington, Virginia, that epitomizes the American approach to road safety. It’s a sloping curve, beginning on a four-lane divided highway and running down to Chain Bridge, on the Potomac River. Most drivers, absent a speed limit, would probably take the curve at 30 or 35 mph in good weather. But it has a 25-mph speed limit, vigorously enforced. As you approach the curve, a sign with flashing lights suggests slowing further, to 15 mph. A little later, another sign makes the same suggestion. Great! the neighborhood’s more cautious residents might think. »

We’re being protected. But I believe policies like this in fact make us all less safe.

I grew up in Great Britain, and over the past five years I’ve split my time between England and the United States. I’ve long found driving in the U.S. to be both annoying and boring. Annoying because of lots of unnecessary waits at stop signs and stoplights, and because of the need to obsess over speed when not waiting. Boring, scenery apart, because to avoid speeding tickets, I feel compelled to set the cruise control on long trips, driving at the same mind-numbing rate, regardless of road conditions.

Relatively recently—these things take a remarkably long time to sink in—I began to notice something else. Often when I return to the U.S. (usually to a suburban area in North Carolina’s Research Triangle), I see a fender bender or two within a few days. Yet I almost never see accidents in the U.K.

This surprised me, since the roads I drive here are generally wider, better marked, and less crowded than in the parts of England that I know best. And so I came to reflect on the mundane details of traffic-control policies in Great Britain and the United States. And I began to think that the American system of traffic control, with its many signs and stops, and with its specific rules tailored to every bend in the road, has had the unintended consequence of causing more accidents than it prevents. Paradoxically, almost every new sign put up in the U.S. probably makes drivers a little safer on the stretch of road it guards. But collectively, the forests of signs along American roadways, and the multitude of rules to look out for, are quite deadly.

Read the rest here. I do agree that driver distraction, in part caused by the proliferation of road signs and traffic rules, is a cause of many accidents. I think caution is in order, however, in comparing traffic accident and fatality rates between countries and attributing the variations to simple differences in traffic rules, because there may be cultural, societal, technological and other differences that play as great, or greater role than traffic rules.

For example, as the article notes, the US has a much different vehicle distribution than the UK, with many more large SUV and pickup trucks on the roads here. In an accident between a small car and a large SUV, physics favors the SUV. Driver education and licensing requirements also play a role. Getting a driver's license in the states is relatively easy compared to, say, Germany, where the driver education and testing requirements are much more stringent.

Factor in the diversity of terrain and climate here in the states versus in the UK, the relative rates of drunk driving and cell phone usage while driving, etc., and differences in traffic densities, and it seems improbable that differences in traffic rules alone, or even primarily, can explain the difference between accidents rates in different nations.

[Hat tip to Siggy for the link]