> Eventually, we tried removing the dialogs altogether and the incident rate approached zero. If you take away the guardrails completely, it radically alters the psychology and game theory around user interaction. Imagine climbing a tall building with multiple layers of protection vs having none at all.

I think there's evidence and studies on this. IIRC removing traffic lights forces people to be much more alert, reducing accidents.

Fun fact: Bhutan is perhaps the only country in the world without traffic lights!

> IIRC removing traffic lights forces people to be much more alert, reducing accidents.

No way this would work long-term in Germany. Maybe there wouldn't be that many more accidents but traffic would stutter, all the time, everywhere. Some safety-first drivers still don't get how roundabouts work ...

Years ago I did a lot of driving around rural Latin America and it could not have been more different from a US city. Official traffic rules were almost non-existent in many areas but the informal ones that had evolved worked shockingly well. Like a cramped two way street might only have room for one car in spots, but there would be a pattern for pulling over and letting opposing traffic pass.

Things like that would probably break down at a certain level of crowded-ness, but it did somewhat change my view of regulation in general. I think there are a lot of cases where people will figure things out just fine if you leave them alone and count on them to be responsible, versus having a million detailed rules that are poorly enforced.

> Fun fact: Bhutan is perhaps the only country in the world without traffic lights!

Afaict they have police officers regulating traffic instead. Not much difference in this particular discussion.

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