Naked Streets Now! by Benjamin Seevers (4/4/2023)

Nothing is more common than street signage. Everywhere you look, you are reminded of the state's existence by speed limits, stop signs, yield signs, etc. But, what if there is another way? Is a signage-free world possible? Enter naked streets.

The idea was pioneered by Hans Mondermann. He called it shared space. Pedestrians and drivers would essentially share the road. There are no sidewalks, curbs, or signage. Nothing! You would expect carnage, right? Well, that isn't what happens at all. Due to a concept called risk compensation drivers and pedestrians exhibit more caution in their day-to-day lives when their are less safety measures in place. This can partially explain why pedestrian deaths increase after seatbelt laws and why concussions might be indirectly caused by football helmets. Remove signage, people might be confused, but they will be more cautious as a result. As a corollary, more signage might lead to more accidents. 

This is one reason why I strictly opposed adding new stop signs when I was a Councilman of North Apollo. There are already little to no accidents in North Apollo. Adding stop signs will either alter nothing or lead to more recklessness on the part of pedestrians and drivers. 

As Libertarians, we must oppose government imposed regulations. Traffic regulations are no exception, especially since they can be used to milk the taxpayer of money through traffic law violation fines. The concept of risk compensation gives us a rationale for opposing signage and traffic laws outside of ethical arguments. Of course, if a private actor wants to put signage on their private road, they should be allowed and they should have the right to enforce their rules, but the government shall not take the prerogative in doing so, especially when there may be drastic unintended consequences for doing so. 

What can elected libertarians do? Well, in Pennsylvania, new stop signs are approved by ordinance. It would take a couple of minutes to write an ordinance repealing all the ordinances that have approved stop signs in the past. The previous stop sign ordinances would either be available on the municipal website or should be given to you upon request. Furthermore, the libertarian should oppose all proposals to add new signage, markings on roads, construction of new sidewalks, etc. Anything that separates the pedestrian world from the driver world should be opposed. Anything that would make people less cautious shall be opposed. 

P.S. When I made similar arguments at a previous council meeting, a retort I got was, "Well, Ben, North Apollo is a small town," as if being a small town exempts us from the laws of economics. This retort is just a lame attempt at excusing the proponents of state intervention from using reason and evidence in their debates. If reason and evidence  have nothing to do with small town X, then the "leaders" of small town X can pretty much do whatever they want. That is the problem with the "But this is a small town" argument. It will be used in every debate whether it is road privatization or trash collection. Be prepared to engage with that.