In my last post I referred obliquely to trials of innovative traffic solutions. The traffic lights on the A30 outside Ashford Hospital were down on my commute in this morning. This is a busy junction in the morning rush, yet I was able to get across without stopping as vehicles yielded the right of way more or less in turn. To do this the traffic (including me!) had to slow to walking pace and I saw an elderly pedestrian cross the A30 without apparent difficulty. I do not know sufficient to judge whether this would be a good idea at all junctions but I am gaining sympathy for the view that we have too many traffic lights and that appropriate traffic calming may enable junctions to be safer without lights.
Such a 'free for all' would though require a hierachy of vehicles, with motorists giving way to cyclists and both giving way to pedestrians such that in a collision the driver of the larger type of vehicle would at least bear the burden of demonstrating in a civil case that the accident was not his fault. I have described this as akin to the system prevailing in some European countries. This is of course a simplification of a complex piece of comparative law which I may attempt in a future post. The burden is harder to shift in some countries and in some circumstances than in others.
Finally, I am gratified that a number of people have been kind enough to express appreciation of my last post.
