Traffic Mgmt in the Sky

If you channel surf like I do you'll find a little gem of a TV Channel - TV7. Full of Doco's, interviews, and quality locally produced programs (The Court Report, Media 7 etc). Much better than the endless mush on the commercial channels...how many cooking shows do we really need (a number less than 1 comes to mind). Oh and our useless, inward looking, media shy Government are closing down this channel later this year...I assume My Key likes cooking shows...or Shortland Street...but I digress...stay with me folks the gliding bit comes later...patience young grasshoppers...

Last night I stumbled over a little doco called "The Truth about Traffic".
It highlighted some bleeding obvious things..."we all think we are above average drivers"..."duh"...in other words "The Lake Wobegon Effect"...Lake Wobegon where all the children are above  average...a mathematical impossibility.

But towards the end it also illustrated how poorly traditional traffic management has worked.
 "Road signs, rather than road architecture, became the chief way to enforce behavior. Pedestrians, meanwhile, were kept out of the traffic network entirely or limited to defined crossing points.
The strict segregation of cars and people turned out to have unintended consequences on towns and cities. Wide roads sliced through residential areas, dividing neighborhoods, discouraging pedestrian activity, and destroying the human scale of the urban environment."
It goes on to say the accident rate has not been addressed despite all this effort...

There are some great examples in Europe where all the signage, control points (Give Way lines etc), traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and the like have been removed. Drivers have to think for themselves -hard  work I know. The result...less accidents and deaths.

What we need is Airways to take some notice...
These endless graps for more controlled airspace, more rules, transponders, traffic information etc etc. Could it be that its all self-defeating???
Could it be that the heavy metal guys have given up looking out the window??
Do Airways assume we can't think for ourselves???
Is they any real evidence that the cost, loss of "free" airspace, and rules are actually improving safety???

When I troll through the accident reports its all pilot error stuff...but I guess we think we are all above average. Maybe the focus is at the wrong end...