"No rules, no rules - you have to think!"

An article in Salon, "Why don't we do it in the road?," presents the idea that traffic of all sorts is safer and works better and more efficiently when there are no rules.  The idea is often called Shared Streets: "redesign the street environment as an active community space, and you equalize the power relationship between cars and human beings."  If thre are no rules, no marked lanes or signs that give someone right-of-way or the right to go 50 mph while there are pedestrians and cyclists sharing the same pavement, then everyone has to be more aware of their surroundings and what others are doing.  Think of the chaos that comes to mind when someone mentions driving the streets of India or China or the Middle East, and the fact that there are so fewer casualties from drivers speeding past crosswalks or pedestrians walking out in front of bicyclists cruising blindly down their bike lanes.  Sure, the end result is nowhere near the same, but the principles are similar.  

It's true, the crazy traffic in Turkey (will Turkey always be my reference point???) made the streets more interesting - and the tiny winding roads of Italian towns are certainly more charming than the autostrada.  

Perhaps the same logic applies to zoning laws?  Do American developments and planned communities so often feel sterile because there are too many rules, too much effort to make things work the way we want them to work?  In my opinion, the answer is an obvious yes.  

Update on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 12:27PM by Annie Lambla

In an interesting development, today at MPC I'm reading a report called Dangerous by Design; Solving the Epidemic of Preventable Pedestrian Deaths (And Making Great Neighborhoods), a joint effort of the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership and Transportation for America.  It cites the Pedestrian Danger Index (PDI) to rank US metro areas by pedestrian safety, taking into account the number of pedestrian deaths per 100,000 people compared with the number of people who walk to work.  Chicago ranks 41st out of the 52 metro areas with populations of at least 1 million.  Higher ranks are better here - number 1 most dangerous city is Orlando, FL, with a PDI of 221.5.  Chicago's is 39.3.  Charlotte (along with Gastonia and Concord) ranks a shameful 12th, with a PDI of 103.9. 

And you wonder why Chicago has better street life...