Lights-off bandwagon

[Martin Cassini]

Tomorrow's Sunday Times is covering Bristol's plans to follow Portishead in switching off lights at a number of junctions. It was inevitable that as soon as one trial showed that we're better off left to our own devices, others would follow. The bandwagon is rolling. But as I've said in a piece for the Bristol Evening Post, lights are only the symptom of the underlying cause of our problems on the road: priority. Priority imposes unequal rights, it sets the stage for competitive conflict, and it produces a "need" for lights. Remove priority, re-educate the public to act according to social context, redesign streets to express that context, and we'll all have an Uncle Bob.