Friday night’s storm seemed to have moved on: The revelers at the Basilica Block Party were emerging from the transportation infrastructure that had sheltered them from lightning (they’d gathered in a parking garage and under I-94), and the sun, previously blotted out by inky clouds, was making a quick reappearance just before setting. For a few hours, wild weather had rattled Minnesota, but the worst had passed, and it seemed relatively safe for Roadguy to head out and grab a late dinner.

The first bit of driving excitement was an unexpected moment of hydroplaning along W. Lake Street, where water had pooled along the curb. The puddles and the pavement looked exactly the same — shiny black — so I moved over a lane and continued on my way.

The second, bigger excitement started on the western edge of Lake Calhoun: power failure. In other words, no functioning stoplights on a stretch of road with multiple intersections and a 35-mile-per-hour speed limit. Eyeing the first set of defunct signals through my wet windshield, I eased off the gas and into a feeling of doom.

But as has been suggested here before, the trappings of civilization may not be the key to discouraging uncivil behavior. With the traffic lights out, chaos did not ensue; instead, the instincts of self-preservation kicked in. Every car, from every direction, stopped or nearly stopped at all the intersections I went through. There were awkward pauses and moments of confusion as to whose turn was next — understandable when there are eight lanes of traffic at what had suddenly become an unmarked four-way stop. But overall, it was a painless drive — everyone was on good behavior.

Obviously we’re a long, long way from just being able to turn off the traffic lights, but I was reminded of the ideas behind the shared-space movement (click here for a previously mentioned Washington Post story) and the fact that more law-abiding pedestrians than jaywalkers are killed each year in New York City (a factoid from the author of this blog and reinforced by my experience here). Taking a superdefensive approach to self-transport definitely has its upside.

If you have a tale about storm-crossed stoplights or fresh thoughts on whether less can be more in the world of traffic regulation, please share below.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 at 6:05 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.