Scrum, my favourite agile project management approach, relies heavily on the power of sefl-organising teams. For each (4 week) iteration the team-members – i.e. those doing the work – choose how much work they will commit to complete during the iteration, then they go off and do it. They self-manage and self-organise. They use their managers and scrum-masters for advice and to obliterate obstacles, but the manager doesn’t tell them what to do or when.
Now, based on similiar principles, we have self-organising traffic.
From bbc news:
A busy London road could soon be stripped of its kerbs, traffic lights and signs as part of a psychological traffic calming measure used in mainland Europe. But would it work?
Exhibition Road in Kensington could be the site of a "naked road" experiment in which all visible markings are removed.
Urban planners claim the approach, which has been used with some success in Holland, Germany and Sweden, reduces speed and accidents by encouraging drivers to be more considerate to pedestrians.
Under the proposals, the West London street - home of the Science, Natural History and Victoria and Albert museums - could have a maximum speed limit of 20mph and drivers will not automatically have right of way over pedestrians who will be able to cross anywhere on the road.
The approach has been tested in Seend, a Wiltshire village, where white lines were removed from the road last April.
Wiltshire County Council said accidents in the village dropped by a third and speed has fallen by an average of 5% after the markings were removed.
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