Traffic Calming Solution #43: Install a Temple

Photo by Rozanne/flickr

Is speeding an issue in your neighborhood?

Don’t try signs – they never work!

Speed bumps?  Sure – but remember that you’ll have to drive over them at least twice a day for…like…ever.

May I suggest another traffic calming solution for you?

Install a Temple.

That’s right.  Temples and shrines are the latest and greatest in traffic calming solutions.  For just $3.5 million dollars (I made that number up, if you couldn’t tell), you and your neighbors can enjoy the peace and quiet that only slow moving vehicles can provide.

Dont’ belive me?

It’s a proven strategy in India.  Temples slow traffic down as drivers take time to ask their dieties for blessings (like, “please don’t let me run out of gas!”)

The local goverenement in India even has a “warrant system” for determining when and where these “devices” are installed.  From a fellow blogger:

Up to three accidents at a particular spot and a yellow colored flag is posted. At 5 accidents they post a red color flag. If the accidents continue to take place or if any casualties take place, a mini Hindu temple is built and voila! Accidents at that particular spot seem to seize almost entirely.

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Gary Lauder’s new traffic sign: Take Turns | Video on TED.com

Although Gary is a Venture Capitalist, in another life he’d had made an excellent traffic engineer. A traffic engineer doesn’t just see a stop sign. He (or she) see’s numbers – that, in this case, tell a story of inefficiency and waste. Gary does a great job of showing the thought process and math (easy math, at that) of how one stop sign can cost society over $2 million. If more people saw the traffic world like Gary, we’d have much less waste.

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Welcome to 2cargarage.com

No. 2cargarage.com is not my first choice. I don’t think it even cracked the top 20. But with like a gazillion blogs out there in the wold wide web, it’s incredibly difficult to find decent names. Try it yourself – you’ll see.

You know what name I really wanted for my blog? — gridlock.com

2nd choice? — roadrage.com

I could have chosen roadfury.com – but it just doesn’t have the same ring to it as roadrage.com.

gridlock.com sounds pretty cool though, doesn’t it? It’s tough…which I’m not…which is why I like it – obviously.

Anyways.

So 2cargarage.com it is. Or more precisely, 2cargarage.blogspot.com. I’m ok with the name, actually. It’s my little inside joke. My little poke at the suburban dream and the congestion nightmare it casts on the millions. We’ll get to that in another post.

So what’s this blog going to be all about? Well, we’ll (why do I think I now have a team working for me on this??) —- Well, I’ll be talking about those 2 little cars and what happens to them…and their drivers…when they take little trips from their safe garages out into the world.

I am going to delve into the bizarre world of traffic — the drivers, the laws, the governments, the decisions, the roads, the signs, the lines, the crashes, the stats, the photos, the videos, the laws, the arguments, the suffering, the humour, the innovations, the evolution, the history, the culture…….all of it…..

In addition to being fascinating to me – I hope it’s fascinating to you too.

Make no mistake about it — Traffic Engineering is a dark art. It appears so simple when you’re driving your regular route to work or school…..but there are layers and layers of artness and darkness just waiting to be uncovered.

I hope you stick around to see what I mean…

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