Beyond Stop and Yield
Gary Lauder has a brilliant proposal to make traffic signs more emotionally intelligent — and to reduce energy costs and accidents in the process. Ā Just watch his four-and-a-half-minute TED Talk, which I’ve embedded below.
Gary Lauder has a brilliant proposal to make traffic signs more emotionally intelligent — and to reduce energy costs and accidents in the process. Ā Just watch his four-and-a-half-minute TED Talk, which I’ve embedded below.
Taking turns…. It reminds me that everything I really need to know I learned IN KINDERGARTEN! Simplicity and kindness are the keys to relationship building. Great video!
I saw that on TED and loved it. But I immediately thought two things: 1) would some think that this was a mandatory turn (as in no through traffic) and as a Canadian, 2) “hmm, how would you make that bilingual French and English?”
I’d love to see a smart designer boil that down to a simple image.
There are already places where we take turns even without signs to tell us what to do. If you have ever driven through the Holland Tunnel, or other such tunnels in the New York City area, you have experienced the your turn, my turn type of driving that is essential when eight lanes become two by design. I am always amazed as to how polite drivers are under such circumstances. I hope this signage catches on.
Doug Green
DrDougGrenn.Com
Daniel, Thank you for sharing that. Very interesting and fun.
Good ideas. I never thought of stop signs and intersections from an efficiency/cost standpoint.
My only concern with the “Take Turns” sign would be the traffic on the main road wouldn’t see the cars on the side. You could also get people slamming on their breaks when the do notice the car on the side road.
What about more intelligent signs (not just emotionally). Maybe a signal light that will light up when there is a car on the side road, and only if there is traffic on the main road.
Perhaps a “take turns” signal light that will only light up if there is more than one car on the road and there is one car on the side road. It will turn red to stop the cars on the main, after the car on the side road goes (or a few seconds) then the light turns green again. Repeating as long as there are cars on the side road and cars on the main road.
You ever come up to a signal light at 2 AM that’s red. You stop, and there is no traffic. You’re just sitting there staring at an empty road… then you decide after sitting at the stop light for two minutes, you’re just going to run the red light. You build up the nerve, make sure there are cops, and step on the gas. Half way across the intersection WHAM you get hit by a semi truck and splattered all over the pavement. Ok, so maybe it doesn’t end that way, but it could. We don’t want that situation at our 3-way intersection.
The $ amounts Gary calculates are mind boggling, not to mention the carbon impact. As an advocate for GREEN business, I found your post/video very exciting ā saving the planet is in the category of āpurposeā for me. I drive differently now that I own a (recalled) Prius, very aware of reducing deceleration and acceleration (vs just speeding around) J. Iām attending a local environmental leadership event in a few weeks – Iāll up the idea of roundabouts. Great post. Thanks. – Jonathan Flaks
Have you see Garr Reynolds recent blog post http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2010/03/we-remember-from-stories-and-experience.html
About halfway down he includes pictures of signs that make the warning information much more salient by making it emotional.
We have the equivalent up here in Montreal. It’s called a four-way stop. Everyone takes it in turns to proceed. Where applicable, we also have three-way stops.
Nick
Brilliant is an idea that makes a difference … cute is an idea that feels good … silly is an idea that at first blush seems great but upon reflection is nonsense … this idea is silly … once people grow accustom to a sign it will cease to have material value … habitual behavior takes over … we need to quit pretending feel good ideas really matter if they are not really tested in the world over time and based upon real science not popularity contests.
These 4 and 3 way stops are totally stupid and just create confusion. Make it worse, is the lack of road markings for these signs in the US. Stopping traffic on a straight road on a ‘T’ intersection is not intuitive.
There are already way to many road signs on roads in the US, most of which are poorly placed and require the driver to read and understand, rather than a simple intuitive symbol.
US road design sucks the road signage is worse – this is so noticeable after travelling overseas. Round abouts are just so simple.