Don't count on the right-of-way.

An NPR conversation this morning reminded me of something I’ve been mulling ever since I had my first driving-in-Italy experience a few years ago.

Back there again a few weeks ago, I wondered whether it might be safer driving in Italy, where you have to pay attention to the aggressive drivers and twisting roads, than driving here in the U.S., where a lot more elbow room and traffic controls give the illusion of safety.

I recently read about a town in England (I think it was England) where they're experimenting with fewer traffic controls. First they tried removing the signs from a round-about and found the number of accidents plummeted, seemingly because drivers had to pay attention to each other rather than to the traffic signs. They’re now removing stop signs from a large section of town to see how that works.

The guest on NPR this morning was saying that the worst accidents are those horrific broadsides that take place in a marked intersection, when two drivers think they have the right of way: “I’ve got the green. Go for it.”

This traffic control thing reminds me of something else I notice every time we go to Europe. That's are very few watch-your-step warnings. I suppose that's because many of the streets and walkways are uneven ground, especially in the historic areas. You have to watch out for yourself. There's no signs by the Seine that say, "Hey fool, don't fall in."

(A bias: I hate the word signage. They’re signs, call them signs.)

There may even be a conservative-liberal argument embedded in this. When is it better to put controls in place and when is it more productive to emphasize individual responsibility? (Who was it that said, “Everything, in the end, is political”?)