No signs please - we are Dutch.

Found this interesting NYT article via the Althouse blog, about a traffic engineer from Netherlands who has supposedly revolutionalized road designs in some Dutch towns by stripping intersections of all road signs, markings, traffic lightts etc.

To make communities safer and more appealing, Mr. Monderman argues, you should first remove the traditional paraphernalia of their roads - the traffic lights and speed signs; the signs exhorting drivers to stop, slow down and merge; the center lines separating lanes from one another; even the speed bumps, speed-limit signs, bicycle lanes and pedestrian crossings. In his view, it is only when the road is made more dangerous, when drivers stop looking at signs and start looking at other people, that driving becomes safer.

Huh ! As Samrat and I often used to discuss, people in the west keep stealing our ideas and presenting it as their own. You see Kolkata Municipal Corp. were far ahead of their time:

They even included open construction sites to keep things interesting.

On an somewhat related note, while writing this blog, I was reminded of the episode from Sienfeld - Jerry and George are at Monk's, both sporting moustaches:

George: What is Holland?

Jerry: What do you mean, 'what is it?' It's a

country right next to Belgium.

George: No, that's the Netherlands.

Jerry: Holland *is* the Netherlands.

George: Then who are the Dutch?

Probably not as funny in writing - but worth a chuckle when you actually see the episode.