Not all drivers take responsibility for their actions

A counterintuitive traffic design strategy known as shared streets

encourages driver anarchy by removing traffic lights, street markings, and boundaries between the street and sidewalk. Studies conducted in northern Europe, where shared streets are common, point to improved safety and traffic flow.

The idea is that the absence of traffic regulation forces drivers to take more responsibility for their actions. “The more uncomfortable the driver feels, the more he is forced to make eye contact on the street with pedestrians, other drivers and to intuitively go slower,” explains Chris Conway, a city engineer with Montgomery, Ala. Last April the city converted a signalized downtown intersection into a European-style cobblestone plaza shared by cars, bikes and pedestrians—one of a handful of such projects that are springing up around the country.

This wouldn't work in China or most places in Taiwan, where drivers regularly ignore traffic lights, street markings, and boundaries between the street and sidewalk.

Generalizing this to the libertarian love of freedom, it suggests to me that for freedom to work, people need to be educated into believing in the rights of others. So will I have to concede that we need a minimum amount of moral brainwashing? Ugh.