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• http://www.salon.com <br /> Elsalon.com <br /> To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your <br /> browser <br /> r 4 <br /> Why don't we do it in the road? <br /> A new school of traffic design says we should get rid of stop signs and <br /> red lights and let cars, bikes and people mingle together. It sounds <br /> insane, but it works. <br /> By Linda Baker <br /> Mmi <br /> May 20, 2004 ( It's rush hour, and I am standing at the corner of <br /> Zhuhui and Renmin Road, a four-lane intersection in Suzhou, China. <br /> Ignoring the red light, a couple of taxis and a dozen bicycles are <br /> headed straight for a huge mass of cyclists, cars, pedicabs and mopeds <br /> that are turning left in front of me. Cringing, I anticipate a collision. <br /> Like a flock of migrating birds, however, the mass changes formation. <br /> A space opens up, the taxis and bicycles move in, and hundreds of <br /> commuters continue down the street, unperturbed and fatality free. <br /> In Suzhou, the traffic rules are simple. "There are no rules," as one <br /> local told me. A city of 2.2 million people, Suzhou has 500,000 cars <br /> and 900,000 bicycles, not to mention hundreds of pedicabs, mopeds and <br /> assorted, quainter forms of transportation. Drivers of all modes pay little <br /> attention to the few traffic signals and weave wildly from one side of <br />