Personal Dork Assistant

A Fine Gedankenexperiment

What would the Germans do when there are no rules?

Each day, thousands of cars and big trucks barreled along the two-lane main street, forcing pedestrians and cyclists to scamper for their lives.

The usual remedies - from safety crossings to speed traps - did no good. So the citizens of Bohmte decided to take a big risk. Since September, they've been tearing up the sidewalks, removing curbs and erasing street markers as part of a radical plan to abandon nearly all traffic regulations and force people to rely on common sense and courtesy instead.

Old habits, however, can be hard to break. Especially in Germany, a rules-obsessed nation where people who dare to jaywalk can expect a loud scolding from other pedestrians, even if no cars are in sight.

Even in Germany they are skeptical whether it'll all work out. I can't imagine something like that working in Taiwan...

...on the other hand, the traffic rules are already de facto null and void around here, practically ignored by drivers, riders, and pedestrians alike. So maybe it would all work out, give or take the drunken driver with the suspended license crashing and decapitating his son. But that's just natural-selection in action there.