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Abstract
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After the 2005 flood that put lights out of action at Hardwicke Circus in Carlisle, congestion dissolved. Now lights operate at rush-hour only. As a result, a major cause of congestion has been removed, and journey times have been cut.
In Drachten in Holland, 24 sets of lights were removed. Accident rates fell, congestion was cut by 20%, and typical journey times were reduced by ten minutes.
Although widely accepted, traffic controls are an unnecessary evil, imposed on a road network by governments with no commercial incentive to ensure the free flow of traffic. Far from making our roads safer and less congested, traffic lights make matters worse. They take our eyes off the road, obstruct our progress and cause needless delay. In the process they damage our health, the economy and the environment. There is another way: remove controls and restore the common law principle of first-come, first-served – or ‘filter-in-turn’, as it's known in the Channel Islands. The optimum form of traffic control is self-control. The onus should be on government to prove otherwise. |