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Title: The Praxeology and Ethics of Traffic Lights
Source:
Ludwig von Mises Institute
URL Source: http://mises.org/daily/4745
Published: Oct 6, 2010
Author: Justin T.P. Quinn
Post Date: 2010-10-07 18:49:57 by X-15
Keywords: None
Views: 116
Comments: 3
It's over. There can be no hope for the state now. Its time has finally come to an end. If you think this is irrationally optimistic, click here and watch the video. You will see the state's raison d'être smashed asunder. How often do you hear the minarchist say, "Well, I don't like government, but we at least need things like traffic laws. We need a government to keep us safe"? For all those who call libertarians crazy for wanting to abolish the Federal Reserve, how much more dangerous and criminal would they accuse us of being if we actually began to publicly advocate the abolition of traffic regulations? Yet, here it is, on video, for the entire world to see, that Hobbes was wrong. Martin Cassini, a photographer and advocate for road deregulation, has produced a marvelous series of videos documenting the results of the Cabstand Junction Trial that started in September of 2009 in North Somerset, in Great Britain. The videos, which can be viewed on his website FitRoads.com and on YouTube, show the remarkable before and after results of the experiment. Without traffic lights regulating intersections, congestion has disappeared and accidents are virtually nonexistent. With the exception of a few who still assume right of way, drivers are courteous and give way to pedestrians and other drivers. This may come as a shock to those who believe in the state, but not to Austrians. This phenomenon can be explained by applying the principles developed in Hans-Hermann Hoppe's theory of argumentation ethics. Both cooperation and empathy are not only part of human nature but are things that must exist within any rational being. It is, as Murray Rothbard put it, the unification of "is" and "ought," of economics and ethics, of the actions that people do perform for their own selfish desires and the actions they should perform for the good of others. In order for any rational person to act, one must accept the principle of first user. The first one to make use of anything previously unowned becomes the exclusive owner of that thing. This includes not only our bodies but also the space our bodies occupy. Any attempt to argue the contrary would bring the arguer into immediate self-contradiction. In the very act of arguing, the arguer not only acknowledges his own right to exclusive use over his body and the space it occupies but also that the person he is arguing with has the same right. The act of trying to convince someone of anything acknowledges not only the other person's ability to agree or disagree, but his right to exclusive self-ownership, because the person must have ownership over his own body to even engage in the act of agreement or disagreement. In argumentation there is also an implied preference for nonviolence. Were that not the case, they would not bother arguing at all, but proceed to kill each other. In the case of an intersection, where people encounter one another in an area neither of them owns, a conflict arises. This conflict is the desire of several people to occupy the same space — the intersection — at the same time. When faced with this problem outside the realm of government regulation, people naturally solve it through the first-user principle. Before anyone else enters the intersection, the first person to have already entered is allowed to leave. It is the same principle that applies to elevators and subways. Those already occupying the vehicle wishing to leave are allowed to. This first-come–first-served, filter-through method is precisely what takes place at these unregulated intersections. It is a clear-cut case of what is known in Austrolibertarian circles as spontaneous order. Rational human beings organize themselves and cooperate voluntarily without the need for government. It is not government, but people that build a civilized society. All government can do is destroy civilized behavior through its violent coercion. What these examples of regulated and unregulated intersections show is about as close to a perfectly controlled social-behavioral experiment as one can possible get, and they demonstrate concretely the truth of the libertarian position on the nature of man and society. In addition, they show the problem of "transition" from a socialist society to a free one is a rather insignificant problem. Were the state to completely disappear tomorrow, people would immediately begin to adapt and thrive in the new situation. What this also demonstrates is yet another example of how government decivilizes people. The Austrolibertarian is aware of a plethora of government interventions into the free conduct of human beings, done in the name of safety, that either make us all less safe or simply create more daily annoyances. Such things include gun laws, airport security armed with naked-body scanners, the invasion of third-world countries, and even the regulation of household plumbing. None of these things make us safe. At best, they treat people more like animals than rational human beings. On average, they are harbingers of death. There is no exception in the case of traffic regulations. In "Traffic Control: An Exercise in Self-Defeat," Kenneth Todd shows that traffic lights, though erected by the state for the sake of "public safety," encourage dangerous and aggressive behavior, contradict other laws at the expense of justice, and are responsible for the loss of vast amounts of wealth and countless lives. The traffic light is perhaps the most destructive machine yet to be devised by man. Traffic lights are also the greatest cause of delay, because they force motorists to stop and wait for the light to turn green. This results in large numbers of vehicles queuing up at the intersection, finally being allowed to move at a green light, only to be caught in the very same problem at the next intersection. When drivers crossing the intersection during a green light misjudge whether or not their vehicle will fit on the other side, they get caught in the middle of the intersection. When this happens, the drivers in streets perpendicular to the trapped driver are now unable to cross, even when they have the green light. This is how congestion and major traffic jams are formed. When one really thinks about it, it truly is Orwellian how one mindless machine can dominate and control the lives of hundreds of millions of rational human beings through willing, blind obedience. The evidence is clear. Road signs and lights that regulate driver behavior at intersections are an abominable menace to society that must be abolished and followed by the complete deregulation of intersections. With the end of traffic control, we can see the end of dangerous roads forever. Once the state is no longer policing the roads, we will soon see an end to all the other ludicrous invasions into our private lives: drunk-driving laws, vehicle inspections and registrations, and driver's licenses.
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#1. To: X-15 (#0)
I don't have a good link, or site, but several Euro cities have removed traffic lights, stop signs, with amazingly good results. Of course they are losing untold red-light-camera revenues, but the drivers there are doing very well without the traffic signals.
No, you don't want to share the road with a drunk.
God is always good!
I'm a great believer in traffic circles.
"If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of surface. This will not be borne, and you will have to choose between reform and revolution. If I know the spirit of this country, the one or the other is inevitable." - Thomas Jefferson
#2. To: X-15 (#0)
we will soon see an end to all the other ludicrous invasions into our private lives: drunk-driving laws, vehicle inspections and registrations, and driver's licenses.
#3. To: X-15 (#0)
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