Utopian thinking

It is axiomatic that if there were no laws, there would be no lawbreaking. In logic, if laws = crime, then no laws = no crime.

Sounds simple, but as we all know, in life what we think of as crime is not merely illegal conduct, but immoral and dangerous conduct — the sort of thing that makes people afraid to leave their houses lest they be robbed, raped, or murdered. Laws may or may not deter such conduct, but even the most ardent libertarians generally agree that penalties of some sort should be meted out against those who inflict harm to others, and conduct involving the use of force or fraud against third parties is seen as harming everyone.

But what about less harmful things like traffic laws? I seem to remember Rand Paul (or maybe some other libertarian politician) got into trouble for saying that he saw nothing immoral about driving through a red light at an intersection if no cars were in sight anywhere.  And there isn’t anything immoral about it; it’s just illegal.

An interesting experiment was done in Germany of all places, and the result was seen as a surprise:

German town abolishes traffic lights and codes. Accidents are now almost non-existent!

In this fascinating public experiment, a German town wanted to see what would happen to traffic flow if they got rid of street signs, lights and other restrictions.  The results are intuitive, but not what you would expect!  Everything got safer and faster.  Would this model hold true for other areas of infrastructure?  Drivers must give way to the left and not drive too fast.  That’s the only rule.  Even the police love the new system, and best of all, people are safer on the road.  Drivers are much more aware and use eye contact and instincts.  People WANT to stop for other people and help things move more efficiently.

I saw exactly the same thing in San Francisco immediately after the 1989 Earthquake. I was stuck there overnight because of the Bay Bridge collapse (I was on it at the time), and while I expected huge traffic hassles, once I managed to get off the broken bridge and back into San Francisco, I was very pleasantly surprised to see virtually all the drivers behaving in an efficient and polite manner, everyone taking turns. All lights were out, and no cops were anywhere, yet the traffic just flowed quite efficiently.  Kind of renewed my faith in humanity.

What if people are better off not being unnecessarily herded? Why herd them? Simply to please the herding class?

Nah, that can’t be right. It wouldn’t make sense.

MORE: The comments below reminded me of this:


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14 responses to “Utopian thinking”

  1. Frank Avatar
    Frank

    You survived the 1989 earthquake on the Bay Bridge? Wow! Thankfully you weren’t on the Nimitz lower deck.
    For those who haven’t seen it, or those who would enjoy a replay, here is a film of Market Street one week before the 1906 earthquake. No street lights, stop signs, or traffic control. Fantastic footage.
    http://www.flixxy.com/san-francisco-1905-historical-footage.htm

  2. Frank Avatar
    Frank

    The destination of the cable car in the movie is the SF Ferry Building. It survived the 1906 earthquake and is still in use, including the clock:

    The original clock mechanism was refurbished in 2000; it is complete and intact, despite two previous modifications. The Ferry Building has its original Special #4 clock made in 1898 by the Boston clock maker E. Howard. It is the largest wind-up, mechanical dial clock in the world. The four dials are each twenty-two feet in diameter, and a portion of the dial appears to be back-lit at night. This is the effect of two concentric dials on each clock face, in which the inner dial is lit and visible at night.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Ferry_Building

  3. Joseph Hertzlinger Avatar

    Strange… In a crowded supermarket a few days ago, I wondered if the traffic jam of shopping carts might be alleviated by traffic lights.

  4. Frank Avatar
    Frank

    At the end of the movie, the cable car is turned around for a ride back up Market Street. The Powell Street cable car which is still in use, also turns around on Market Street. When I was a kid, we would jump off the car at Market and help the conductor turn the car around for the ride back up. We’d jump on it while it was still moving. I’m sure they’ve stopped that now. Liability and all that crap.
    Also, in the movie you pass the Palace Hotel on the ride down Market. It’s on the right, south side, and is still there.

  5. Randy Avatar
    Randy

    Eric, I had a similar experience in 1994. I was living in Sherman Oaks, CA when the Northridge quake hit the area in January of that year.

    A friend and colleague lived in a condo that was deemed uninhabitable after the quake. It was a huge complex and 60-80 units or more needed to be evacuated. I was one of several people helping Leslie move shortly after the quake. Cars and trucks were double and triple parked in the street and in the condo parking lot, but everyone cooperated in letting vehicles in and out for access. Also, people had to dodge one another in the halls as everyone was having to move out. Several times I had to duck into a strangers condo unit in order to get out of someone else’s way. No one screamed or yelled when that happened because everyone understood the situation and the necessity to keep the halls clear.

    Like you, it made me feel good about my fellow man as everyone pitched in together to help one another. Especially so after having lived in fear during the rioting of a year or two earlier. The riots occurred after the not guilty verdicts of the police in the King beating trial. That was quite a dismal week.

  6. Simon Avatar

    Frank,

    When I was a kid, we would jump off the car at Market and help the conductor turn the car around for the ride back up.

    One of my favorite memories was the turn around near Ghirardelli Square.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    “Why herd them? Simply to please the herding class?”

    Eric, this may be true to an extent, but I think the answer to this is more from the inability of the human mind to grasp the concept of a spontaneous order.

    When we conceive of order, we tend to think of it in a one dimensional top down way. Whereas the truly efficient order in a society with n individuals is an n-dimensional order with each individual pursuing his/her goals as efficiently as possible given the knowledge available. Unfortunately, the resulting order, and it is an order, is simply too complex for the human mind to grasp as a whole. It is a higher order of order, but to the uninformed and timid mind, it appears to be chaos.

    Yet when properly understood, it is actually a much simpler order than the one dimensional order. The one dimensional order has a myriad of rules. With the n-dimensional order, there is really only one rule, essentially, the golden rule, i.e. respect others natural rights.

    Hayek, of course, is the seminal thinker in this area of spontaneous order and the knowledge problem.

  8. Gringo Avatar
    Gringo

    This posting on traffic and traffic regulators reminds me of once being a passenger in a taxi in Bogota, Colombia around rush hour. There was a traffic cop in the intersection, waving his arms and using his whistle in an attempt to regulate the traffic in accordance with the lights, to no avail. The traffic just ignored him- and the traffic lights. And there was a horrific jam. So much for libertarianism south of the border.

  9. OregonGuy Avatar

    David–

    I’ll see your Hayak and raise you an Edmund Burke.
    .

  10. Kathy Kinsley Avatar
    Kathy Kinsley

    Interesting. I’ll add to the anecdotes. After Hurricane Charley, all the traffic lights hereabouts were down. Traffic ran smoothly and politely on all intersections. UNTIL the city got traffic cops out.

    So. I believe that experiment should be tried elsewhere.

  11. Captain Ned Avatar
    Captain Ned

    Well, I upgraded to a cheap fiberglass pole and a Zebco 202, but that’s otherwise a decent description of a rural VT childhood.

  12. […] guess. Hint: if you guessed chaos, carnage, violence, and death, you just might be a Progressivist. Eric adds: I saw exactly the same thing in San Francisco immediately after the 1989 Earthquake. I was stuck […]

  13. Simon Avatar

    I have very fond memories of fireflies. And fishing with sticks. And worms dug up in the back yard.