The end of the white line?

Revolutionary road layouts that abolish markings and signs could save lives and speed up traffic flow, wrote Max Glaskin in The Sunday Times on 22 August.

The article looks at 'the town of tomorrow', Drachten in Holland where traffic lights, give way signs, kerbs and white lines have been removed so that cars, bicycles and pedestrians mix freely.

The article goes on to say that 'at the high table of road traffic management a big conversation is taking place that could change the face of our roads for ever. After 40 years of an ever expanding array of traffic calming measures - from warning signs to road markings and speed humps - a revolutionary new theory is now under discussion. It asserts that the best way to improve road safety is not to increase roadside markings and warnings but to abolish them. Instead planners should rely on a new technique known as 'psychological traffic calming'.

To read the article in full go to http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,12389-1225348,00.html