[*BCM*] The Cure For Traffic Chaos?

[contraelolvido at riseup.net]

It seems like an obvious axiom, doesn't it, that legal enforcement, laws,
regulations, all followed by the threat of punishment are the only way to
control traffic flow. This idea of state-management, specifically
highly-ordered city planning, is necessary to provide safety fits nicely
in the liberal (in the true sense) idea that the government serves as a
benevolent force, and uses its monopoly on violence to promote the safety
and well being of its citizens. And yet, just as the notion of state
regulation in aspects from marriage to trade are being attacked on all
sides, so is the axiom of driving regulations.

Hans Monderman's seemingly anarchic "shared space" and "homezone" traffic
designs are proving across europe to be both more effective, and safer
than highly ordered roads. But enough from me, here's some more info.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0127/p01s03-woeu.html
http://newurbanist.blogspot.com/2005/01/shared-space-and-road-design.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/22/international/europe/22monderman.html?pagewanted=1&ex=1264136400&oref=login
---(From Bugmenot.com use Acct: Orwell1948 Psswd: Orwell) If you still
have trouble reading e-mail me offlist for full article.


But wait, don't I need the state to ensure my safety? Laws don't breed
morality, nor prevent crime. Why? Laws don't promote active understanding,
internalization, and reproduction of the social (and traffic patterns)
reasons behind laws (traffic laws in particular). Laws enforce punishment,
and subconciously dehumanize by relegating what could be best done under
self control to the state. Not only does this alienate people from the
laws, but encourages them not the think about their own behavior. That's
precisely why speeding is endemic. The state and police can't patrol all
roads, and even if they could it wouldn't work.

This is precisely why I'm mad at massbike. They believe, foolishly, that
more regulation, punishment, and enforcement are needed to put us bikers
in line. Completely ignoring the classist aspects of their laws
(regressive taxes, selective enforcement in poor neighborhoods, racist
police) they won't help. If the history of motor enforcment is an example,
they will only make things worse. The roads won't ever be perfectly safe,
duh. But they certainly won't start to get safer until we internalize
responsiblity.

-- 
"The only advice I can give is, if [anarchism]'s allowed to continue, hang
on. Once they get a foothold, they won't go away." - Capt. Thad Buchanan,
Eugene PD

Capitalism, in effect, constitutes the point of absolute negativity for
society and the natural world. One cannot improve this social order,
reform it, or remake it on its own terms... The only choice one has is to
destroy it. - Murray Bookchin