Should Your City's Streets 'Go Naked'?

"Imagine, for a moment, a busy downtown intersection with no traffic lights, signs or sidewalks. There are no markers on the ground, no speed bumps, no police officer conducting the flow of vehicles. There's not even a curb. Every element of traffic — pedestrians, bikers and drivers — is left to fend for itself. Sounds like a recipe for chaos, right? Wrong. The implementation in a number of European communities of what some have dubbed 'naked streets' has been hugely successful. Urban planners in Holland, Germany and Denmark have experimented with this free-for-all approach to traffic management and have found it is safer than the traditional model, lowers trip times for drivers and is a boost for the businesses lining the roadway. The idea is that by removing traffic lights, signage and sidewalks, drivers and pedestrians are forced to interact, make eye contact and adapt to the traffic instead of relying blindly on whether that little dot on the horizon is red or green. In effect, every person using the street, be it an SUV owner or a kid with a wagon, becomes equal."