What finnish country road can tell us about the future...

Last weekend I drove about 40km in Finnish sand roads (soratie) somewhere between Haapajärvi and Pihtipudas, and the road revealed one part of our future in an interesting way....

Finnish sand roads
You automatically drive max 80kmh (which happens to be the speed limit) because it's not sensible to drive any faster.
When you come into a curve, you slow down because otherwise you just simply slide out.
When car comes towards from another direction, you slow down because otherwise neither of you cannot safely pass.
You keep a good distance to the car ahead of you because otherwise you drive in dust and flying rocks.
You only pass another car when visibility is quaranteed and the other car goes clearly slower than  you.

No need for any traffic signs. Easy, fast and cheap to maintain. Functional low tech where we take responsibility and use our brains.

Finnish paved roads
Excessive amounts of traffic signs....overload of them. Everything possible defined. Slow down in curves, do not pass because visibility is limited, slow down there's a crossroad = possibly other cars on the way or pedestrians.
Big machinery trying to maintain quality with lesser budgets. Bureaucracy dedicated to increase "safety" = thinking all the scenarios for us thus minimising our own thinking.


Future is partly in going back to basics (adjusting beacuse we will not have the money to keep the current ways), in responsible&sensible behaviour and in using our brains again ... This all instead of living in this ever increasing requirement specification.