Saturday, August 13, 2005

What if there were no traffic cops?

In the Ukraine, there's been no significant change since Viktor Yushchenko dissolved the traffic police.

I think a lot of people would agree that American roads are over-regulated. Why can't we, for example, drive more than 70 mph (the highest the speed limit gets in Minnesota) on a straight, flat road? 70 mph is arbitrary. What's so special about it? I doubt there's any corellation between speed limits and human reaction time.

And what's with the abundance of "no right turn on red" signs in Minneapolis. I'm sure some are justified (for example, if the there's a stoplight on the segment of road you want to turn onto shortly after the turn, then allowing people to turn right on red might create excessive backups and/or gridlock), but there are some that seem to be placed particularly to cause annoyance.

For example, on 50th St. and Vincent, you're not allowed to turn right from eastbound 50th onto southbound Vincent when the light is red. Why not?!? Vincent is a very non-busy road. Often, there's not even anybody going straight on Vincent (perpendicular to 50th) while you're waiting on 50th during the red light. And there aren't any stoplights on Vincent south of 50th. There are barely even any stop signs. What would be the harm in just letting people turn right on red here?

Anyway, all I'm saying is that I think we could do with a reduction in traffic regulations. Common sense is all I'm asking for. Basically, if you're actions on the road aren't going to [practically] endanger anybody else, they should be legal.

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