The project is the brainchild of Mr Monderman, and the town has seen some remarkable results. There used to be a road death every three years but there have been none since the traffic light removal started seven years ago.

There have been a few small collisions, but these are almost to be encouraged, Mr Monderman explained. “We want small accidents, in order to prevent serious ones in which people get hurt,” he said yesterday.

“It works well because it is dangerous, which is exactly what we want. But it shifts the emphasis away from the Government taking the risk, to the driver being responsible for his or her own risk.

The idea is that people who have to decide for themselves when to go or stop will take more care in doing so; also, they won’t hinder traffic by waiting for lights when there is no need to.

As someone who’s driven thousands of miles around Europe in some of the wildest driving conditions (Italy and Russia), I think a good way to explain the difference is between “free market” and “socialistic” driving systems, roughly speaking. The United States has an authoritarian, “socialistic” traffic system. With a few notable exceptions such as the drivers here in Boston, most people adhere to a strict, top-down system of traffic management.

Italians for example, especially those around Naples, have more of a “free market” system of driving. Not by design, as in the Netherlands test, but because Italians just ignore traffic laws. The result seems to work well; everyone gets around without a noticeably greater accident rate. In fact, studies I’ve read indicate that it’s Germany–with strict traffic regulations similar to those in the U.S.–that has one of the highest serious accident rates.

Think of it as the invisible hand applied to traffic flow. Besides, there’s something a lot of fun about roundabouts. So here’s my vote to use them in place of the dangerous and traffic-hindering traffic lights.

Man hurt in fall from balcony in Brighton
By O’Ryan Johnson
Sunday, July 31, 2005 – Updated: 12:34 AM EST

A 22-year-old Connecticut man visiting friends took an accidental fall from the fourth-floor balcony of a Brighton apartment building last night, police said.

He is in critical condition at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, police said.

Police said it appears the man lost his balance on the balcony and fell. Officer Neva Grice said drinking was not involved.

The victim, whose name was not released, was inside the apartment with three other friends prior to the accident, police said.

A man who lives on the first floor said he walked outside of his apartment about 8 p.m. to find the man laying on his back in a grassy stretch between the brick building and the sidewalk. He said the man was breathing, but was not moving. He said the man had no visible injuries and was not bleeding.

Deputy Superintendent Joseph Driscoll said it did not appear as though the men were partying.

“It looked like more of a get-together,” he said.

A man who was in the apartment with the victim at the time of the fall said there was “no partying, nothing like that going on.” He declined to be interviewed.

The ambulances seemed to take a long time to leave (there were two ambulances, a paramedics’ vehicle, several police cars, and a firetruck). After they loaded him up they must have sat in the street for fifteen or twenty minutes, with the police interviewing friends and witnesses. We thought he must either be okay or dead. But since he was in “critical condition,” why wouldn’t they go to the hospital as quickly as possible?

UPDATE Aug 1 2005 11:15 AM: It sounds like the man’s condition has improved:

Man stable after fall from balcony

A Connecticut man who fell four stories from the balcony of a Brighton apartment on Saturday night remained hospitalized yesterday but is expected to make a full recovery, authorities said. Matthew Pruett, 22, of Newington, Conn., was initially listed in critical condition at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, but authorities said his condition has stabilized. Pruett had been having dinner with friends at about 8 p.m. in an apartment on Sutherland Road when he fell from the balcony and landed on a patch of grass. The apartment’s tenant, who asked not to be identified, said yesterday that there had been no excessive use of alcohol prior to the incident and that Pruett’s fall was an accident.