Traffic Circles: A Libertarian Solution for Traffic Problems

The Northwest Report
June 2, 2010

What goes through the mind of a libertarian during their daily life?

I had a thought when I was sitting at a red light and no cars were around:

“It’s safe to go because there’s no car for miles. No one will see me if I run this light.”

How would a law abiding libertarian solve this? Traffic circles.

They may go by another name depending on where you live. Roundabout is a popular term. They go by “glorieta” in Spanish speaking areas. The New England area of the states uses “rotary.” Less popular terms include “euro-loops” and “car cyclotrons.”

They’re popular in Europe and many venturous communities in the states. We have a few in town and they seem to work. Just like traffic lights, people need to know how to drive in a traffic circle. Once learned, there are many benefits:

Minimal stopping
Less stress on you and your car
Your car uses less gas
Improves traffic flow
Beautifies
Pedestrian safety zone

Seattle’s Neighborhood Traffic Control Program (NTCP) aims to assist and improve deteriorating neighborhoods. They discovered that accidents declined over a one year period. There were 187 accidents before the construction and eleven in the year after.

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Source of Charts: http://www.usroads.com/journals/rmej/9801/rm980102.htm

Can people be trusted to manage their cars without being controlled by so many traffic lights? Can people be trusted to manage themselves? Can liberty work in cars?

The following video documents what happened when a city removed their traffic lights.

The video description reads:

What happens to a congested town when traffic lights are removed? Humanwire Correspondent Martin Cassini reports on this experiment performed in Somerset County, England.

Our city was thrown a curve ball by a large power outage that occurred this last month. Traffic was backed up several blocks. The one bright spot during this hectic time? Traffic circles.