What if we had no traffic lights and relied on driver judgment, what do you think would be the result?
by 
Polly Math
ANSWERS: 34
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I was once told, that back in the early early days of the car, there were only two in all of Ohio, and they hit each other.
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http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2007/11/04/pileup_wideweb__470x290,0.jpg
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Everyone would be crashing into each other. Ever notice that everyone thinks they have the right of way? Nobody would ever stop unless they really HAD to. It'd be a disaster.
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Total chaos. (Course I think there are some people who do that now).
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more lawyers +5
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Sociologically speaking, if we were the kind of society that thought we could try this with reasonable success, we'd probably already be driving flying cars to the Moon for five-month vacations. On the one or two days a year when the power goes out to some of the lights at major intersections in this little suburban town it results in massive tie-ups until a cop can arrive to do the traffic control himself. On the topic: I realized that traffic lights mean different things in different parts of the US. In New England a red light generally means "stop unless it's late at night and there's no traffic". In Phoenix, a red light means "only the next five cars may proceed."
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traffic would flow easier,,,,
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No problem at all. Do it already in places in holland and yhings like traffic flow are better
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It would be a mess!
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A lot of road rage, flipping the bird, cussing and fender benders.
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Crash,bang and wallop
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Extreme lowering of world population.
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Grid Lock!
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Pretty bad, considering what we have WITH traffic lights.
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I'd think slower traffic and considering the quality of the average local driver, well it may not really make much of a difference. Actually, in my City, there was a major intersection of two four lane roads, with turn lanes, that only had stop signs until about 18 years ago. It was a real problem. The flow of traffic through that intersection improved significantly after it was signalized.
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Many of us will be wearing steering wheel sombreros.
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oddly i think road accidents would get less as people would have to start paying more attention and read the road more. This would result in quicker reaction times and less people being idiots.
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I think that there would be more crashes, with people wanting to cut off and be rude, and traffic would be even more horrible than it is now.
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I think there would be many many more accidents than there already are. I already see how it is with the judgement of other drivers! +5
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Huge increases in wrecks,emergency room visits,traffic jams,fights,insurance rates,and deaths!!!!Not a good idea!
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Be alot of accidents that could of been prevented.
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The gentleman who invented the traffic light, Garrett Morgan, did so because there were so many traffic accidents. At the time, the automobile was very new still and many people still used horse drawn carriages and wagons for traveling and transporting goods. Neither the automobile, nor the horse drawn vehicles had fast responding brakes, which was the main cause of so many accidents. Today, vehicles have excellent brake systems; however, they also go much faster than the old cars and horse drawn carriages. So not only would there be utter chaos and many accidents, but the accidents would be much worse and much of the time fatal.
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Total chaos. You have to consider that some drivers have no judgement whatsoever and at times it's not even safe to be on the road here. I see the worlds population quickly decreasing.
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An absolute disaster! Specially on Friday and Saturday nights, after hundreds of "guys who had too many drinks" meet at traffic intersections..... The wild macho of the urban jungle will rule!!!!....Get out of my way you mo&&#_*@,,,,,..
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It's bad enough WITH traffic lights!
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I actually read an article about this. In those areas of the world where there are no traffic controls at all, accidents are relatively low. I forget the reasons. I think it had to do with people being more careful when they have to develop their own, more intuitive methods for dealing with other drivers. http://onthecommons.org/content.php?id=1998
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Chaos, road rage, murder, & car accidents.
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I used to live in a town with not one, but three one-lane covered bridges. For the most part, drivers waited patiently in line to cross the bridge, alternating directions. Occasionally, some jerk would decide to go immediately after the car before him had gone, and would risk a head-on collision as the people waiting on the other side expected to go as soon as the oncoming car exited the tunnel. This "one car at a time" protocol led to long traffic jams at these bridges at busy times. I currently live in a large city with a great many unregulated intersections. Very few of the accidents that occur in my city happen at these intersections- mostly they take place on the freeways or the "main drags". Most accidents that occur on the intersections of streets with traffic lights are a result of people ignoring or running the light. To summarize, if we had no traffic lights, there might or might not be more accidents on high-traffic streets. There certainly would be long lines of slow slow slow traffic waiting to cross: that's a *best case* scenario.
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There would be no more traffic accidents. .. because all traffic would jam in a massive gridlock and nobody would be able to move their cars ever again :)
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Hahah...I got one thing to say OMG Hurgada Egypt. I don't know how they do it;my eyes were closed half the time but they use their horns a lot! XD
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Impossible. Insurance rates would be so high, no one would be able to afford to drive a car at all!!
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Not necessarily anything out of the ordinary... IF you can think for yourself AND rely on others to do the same, like in Hanoi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr5Gssaxl6g Our Western World is much too regulated which makes us complacent, me thinks.
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In capitols and big cities traffik would be at a stand still. Then the car insurance would be so high that only the richest of people could drive a car.
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Gridlock. Deadlock. Poppycock.
Azlotto 
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