The notion of cities doing away entirely with their traffic signs might evoke, for the average urban motorer, images of fiery heaps of twisted metal at every street corner. But several municipalities in Europe have already begun experimenting with the idea, and so far it appears that asking drivers to exercise commons sense and civility instead of relying on Stop, Yield, and Merge signs in order to prevent accidents might just be the smartest--and safest--way to keep the traffic moving.

According to an article in Spiegel Online, a Dutch "traffic guru" named Hans Monderman and colleagues conceived of the experiment as a response to what they saw as, in effect, increasingly crappy manners.

"The many rules strip us of the most important thing: the ability to be considerate. We're losing our capacity for socially responsible behavior," Monderman is quoted as saying. "The greater the number of prescriptions, the more people's sense of personal responsibility dwindles."

In other words, if people are old enough to drive, they should should be mature enough to act like adults. When every movement is controlled, people get aggressive; when those controls are removed, they (usually) act more cautiously.

It's an innovative, imaginative, even noble approach to legislating (or rather not legislating) behavior--and one that most American parents with teenage speed demons living under their roofs would probably vote down in a heartbeat. Still, according to Spiegel, traffic accidents are down dramatically in the areas that have been "clear-cutting their forest of traffic signs."

May we suggest trying it in L.A. first? Those loonies never pay attention to traffic signs, anyway.

Image: Ben Behnke