The Wall Street Journal occasionally surprises me by featuring a story of roadgeek interest on the front page. That was the case today, where the Journal ran a story on Germans’ addressing sign clutter (subscriber link):
In Troisdorf, a bucolic city of 75,000 near Cologne in western Germany, Mr. Adam and other local officials spent the past year driving up and down 800 streets with an ADAC representative inspecting 5,000 traffic signs.
In an early drive-through last year, the group stopped at an intersection. It featured 16 signs, including three “no stopping” signs, two “yield” signs and two “no entry” signs. There wasn’t a car in sight. After some debate, they agreed that the intersection would be just as safe—or safer—with only half a dozen signs. “I like the look of it,” said Hartmut Minjoth, the ADAC lawyer, as he stood in the quiet intersection and imagined it clutter-free.
Condemned signs are covered with plastic yellow hoods. The streets look as if Christo, the artist famous for wrapping the Reichstag and other public buildings, had paid a visit. If nobody complains within a few weeks, officials take the signs down.
The group also agreed to hood other signs on neighboring streets, including a “pedestrians only” directive at the entrance to a narrow path after everyone agreed that even a bicycle couldn’t squeeze through. Spirits were high as the van pulled up to a local bakery for coffee and cake. “Maybe we’ll open a museum” for discarded signs, joked Mr. Adam.
The primary challenge in the trend is reportedly German “rule mania” and “people sitting in government offices who simply like to put up signs”.
And here I am, in the middle of more frequent trips up to Boston, where I can’t help but notice that there are an awful lot of signs, and an awful lot of driver who ignore them.