In northern states in the US it is quite common to see cars with whole sections rusted out - and the cars still taking part in traffic. In Belgium and the Netherlands yearly inspections make it impossible to keep driving cars with so much rust. This also means that much older cars are less likely to be part of daily vehicle traffic.
While we were driving in Minnesota we noticed a few things that are quite common in the Netherlands and Belgium. In many neighborhoods in the US a 4 way stop sign is common. This means that cars from each road stop at the intersection, yielding to any cars which arrived earlier. In Europe, and especially in the Netherlands, this type of intersection is solved by a roundabout. Traffic remains flowing at an efficient and safe rate. We saw several of these in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
An innovation that was innovated by the Dutch and is extremely helpful are links in the road in front of a stoplight. These links are pressure sensitive and send signals to the stoplights which then regulate the traffic based on how much is coming from which direction. This means that, if you approach a stoplight and there is no cross traffic, the light automatically turns green.
Another innovation from the Dutch is perhaps less-desired by most drivers: the red-light camera. This is of course used to catch any cars traveling through the intersection after the light has already turned red. Although no one likes to get a ticket for running a red light, people who have experienced the shock and disaster that can come from being hit by a red-light runner are happy that such an innovation has reduced the number of drivers running red lights.
Another thing we saw plenty of in Minnesota which is quite common in Belgium and the Netherlands was bike paths. In the Netherlands the bicycle is a major way to take part in traffic
No comments:
Post a Comment