> Gotta read that PDF linked to earlier; haven't yet, and won't be
> able to for a day or so. My own views on these matters are
> founded mostly on my own experience over the last, oh, forty
> years or so, as driver, cyclist and pedestrian. I feel a lot
> safer on a European chaotic street -- like Piazza del Popolo
> -- than I do on a regimented Amurrican street, like Queens
> Boulevard.
It's funny you describe the differences. Over New Year's I took a trip to Italy and France that involved a lot of expressway driving, and I marvelled at how civilized it all was. There were the standard expectations (slow drives right) and they were followed. I don't think there was any particular appeal to chaos, but it just went smoothly, somewhat to my surprise.
In the Netherlands I heard about experiments on city side streets with the sort of system you describe, where there are no traffic signs and whatnot, people just have to figure it out. I don't know what has become of this effort.
-- Andy