Perhaps I can support the theory below referenced.
It always AMAZED me that the british coastline consisted of hundreds of miles
of tall cliffs without a trace of a fence or a warning sign.
But come to think of it, so does the coast of California.
Oh well.
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University ([email protected])
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
----- Original Message -----
From: Robert Holmes
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Sent: 7/19/2009 2:14:46 PM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Roundabouts: not for the timid
Gary - the way you connect road regulation with some over-arching themes in US
culture reminds me of an article from The Atlantic "Distracting Miss Daisy"
(http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/traffic) about the over-use of signage
on US roads. The main argument for the plethora of signs is (i) US communities
don't want to get sued because they've not told someone it might be a good idea
to slow down for the hairpin bend and (ii) US drivers don't want to think too
hard (but the article was written by a Brit so there might be just a touch of
trans-Atlantic bias) -- Robert
On Sat, Jul 18, 2009 at 11:38 AM, Gary Schiltz <[email protected]>
wrote:
Having lived most of my 50 years in the USA and having just completed my first
year in another country (Ecuador, which does have roundabouts), I think I am
beginning to understand why. Note that I'm not trying to defend what it is to
be American, let alone its consequences as played out on the world stage, but
just would like to give a bit of insight into our collective psyche. Nothing
scientific, mind you, but I have tried to analyze why I initially didn't like
roundabouts, even though I am starting to warm up to them. In the process, I
think I have learned a great deal about what it is to be an American.
Despite paying lipservice to eschewing the government imposing rules on us, we
Americans are amazingly legalistic (no wonder we have so many lawyers per
capita). So, we demand that our individual rights be honored, right down to not
having to negotiate with someone else for something as simple as a spot in
traffic lane. As a society, we agree to "take turns" through things like
traffic lights: I am fine with yielding when it is someone else's turn, as long
as it is understood that when it is *my* turn, nobody else had better get in my
way. None of this touchy-feely negotion crap involved with something as simple
as crossing an intersection, just give me the green light and get the hell out
of my way (strident sounding language, but I think it does capture some of the
emotional undercurrent of American culture). In a traffic circle (roundabout),
you have to actually communicate with other drivers by looking them in the eye
to see if they are going to let you change lanes. No wonder Chevy Chase got to
look at the Arc de Triumphe in Paris with his family all day long from a
traffic circle in "European Vacation."
I think this may also shed some light on why we Americans don't much like
soccer (as an American, I can't quite bring myself to refer to it as "football"
:-) To those of us who don't watch soccer very much, it never is clear who is
in control of the ball. Give us good old American Football, where one side has
absolute possession of the ball as long as they can keep it. They have four
tries to score or capture territory (very warlike game, it is), and if not,
then it is unambiguously the other team's ball.
;; Gary
On Jul 18, 2009, at 11:17 AM, Robert Holmes wrote:
So why don't they use roundabouts over here more frequently? In the UK they
prove to be much safer and have a higher throughput than traffic light
controlled junctions.
-- Robert
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
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============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
