Eric Thompson: Let's get rid of ridiculous traffic signs

The black car (centre left) follows the new give way rules allowing the silver car to turn left. Photo / Christine Cornege

After spending Sunday driving around observing how folk were getting on with the new give way rule change, I was pleasantly surprised.

Other than the odd Mexican stand-off - you know, where no one goes for a bit and then both cars move at the same time only to both stop at the same time before someone makes the bold move and just goes - things worked pretty well.

I reckon because everyone was a bit more cautious, they were more aware of what was going on around them. My suggestion would be to change a rule a week and the incidents of minor traffic accidents would plummet.

Actually, why doesn't New Zealand go the whole hog and do what a town in the Netherlands did, and remove all traffic signs?

In 2003, Dutch transport planner Hans Monderman decided to remove all traffic signs, traffic lights and in some cases road markings in Drachten, which has a population of around 50,000. He even introduced a children's playground in the middle of the road to force traffic to slow down!

Before the new signless system was introduced there were eight accidents in the town centre a year, which was reduced to zero afterwards. All major intersections were turned into roundabouts while smaller ones were left, well, open and in the hands of the drivers. There was also an upsurge in pedestrians and cyclists.

A number of other European towns saw the logic in removing all road instruction and realised it made drivers concentrate on driving and not sign watching. "We want small accidents, in order to prevent serious ones in which people get hurt," said Monderman in an interview.

The German town, Bohmte, was the next to try the new approach to traffic management where town officials said the amount of traffic signs was confusing drivers.

A transport ministry official was quoted as saying, "Many road signs are only put up so that we are covered for insurance purposes and not necessarily because they provide the driver with useful information."

I'd agree with that. Sometimes in Auckland I have to pull over to read all signs at a junction just to find out if I'm allowed to go straight ahead, turn, stop or give way.

It's not much better on the motorway either. Have you noticed the increase in those black and yellow electric moveable signs? I've seen drivers hitting the brakes while in the outside lane just to slow down enough to read the long messages. Crazy.

Meanwhile, back in Drachten, at the largest intersection up to 22,000 cars pass through the roundabout, which used to be a traffic light intersection. In the old days, cars stopped and started causing major tailbacks but that is now rare.

And don't forget, if motorists approach a junction slower and with more caution, the safer pedestrians and cyclists will be.