Last week another young man lost his life on Bermuda's roads.

Cue the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth. Cue the politicians, pleading with us to slow down. Cue the columnists, bemoaning the state of our driving. Cue the public demands for something to be done. We've heard it before and the next time someone dies on the roads we'll hear it again. Yet nothing changes.

Poor driving practices are entrenched. Driving after a few drinks is regarded as no big deal. Speed cameras remain an unfulfilled promise. Police patrols are few. The punishments meted out to those unlucky enough to be caught serve as little deterrent. If we were serious about improving road safety, we would have done something about these things a long time ago. But we have not.

It's time for us to consider a more controversial solution.

Instead of looking for ways to make the Island's roads safer, perhaps we should go out of our way to make them more dangerous. Let's tear down the road signs; get rid of the traffic lights; eliminate the road markings; remove the pedestrian crossings. While we're at it, let's lose the sidewalks too.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that this sounds crazy. You're thinking that this would lead to more accidents, not less. You're thinking that perhaps it's time for me to pay a visit to the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute.

So perhaps you'd be surprised to learn that this approach has already been tried in several countries. What's more, it seems to work.

A fascinating article in Wired magazine (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.12/traffic.html) last year gave some examples. The Danish town of Christianfield removed all traffic signs and signals from its major intersection and saw the number of serious accidents drop from three a year to zero. In Wiltshire, England, a study found that removing the centre line resulted in a 35 percent decrease in the number of accidents. In West Palm Beach, Florida, planners narrowed roads, removed traffic signals and eliminated turn lanes: slower traffic, faster journey times and fewer accidents were the result.

The approach seems counter-intuitive, but think about it for a minute. Ever run a red light? Of course you have. Who hasn't? But you were right behind the car in front, which went through on amber, and there's a second or two when all lights are red, right? You relied on that rule to guarantee your safety.

Now think of the last time you approached an intersection where the lights weren't working. Did you blindly follow the car in front of you then? Didn't think so. You probably did the same as me: slowed to a crawl while frantically looking back and forth for anything with which you might collide. You relied on your senses to guarantee your safety.

Without any rules or visual cues to guide us, we instinctively drive slower and more carefully than we would otherwise. When the Causeway was rebuilt after Hurricane Fabian, there was a period of time when the new asphalt had no centre line. The Causeway is a narrow road, and I remember being nervous driving on it without any lane markers. To be sure I wasn't going to hit anything coming the other way, I slowed down.

Further evidence of the calming effect of ambiguity is already available at several odd junctions around the Island, including the bizarre three-way intersection by Somers Supermart in St. George's. I'm told that the first car to reach any of the give way lines has right of way. But I'm not certain. So every time I reach that junction at the same time as another vehicle, I stop. Who goes first is determined by a lot of waving and eye contact. A mini-roundabout would make the right of way more explicit, but I'd probably enter that junction much faster than I do now.

Some have suggested that Bermuda should switch to driving on the right-hand side of the road, to make it safer for our US visitors who rent cycles here. Perhaps they're safer the way things are. Being unfamiliar with driving on the left, our American visitors probably travel slower and concentrate harder than they would otherwise. That said, if Bermuda ever did decide to switch to driving on the right, it might make the rest of us safer, at least for a time, for the same reasons.

Reducing the number of collisions and deaths on Bermuda's roads will require decisive action. Pleas for restraint and gory images in the media will make no difference. Widespread use of speed cameras, more police patrols, and stigmatising drunk drivers probably will. But making our roads more dangerous might be more effective still.

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Phillip Wells is the founder of www.limeyinbermuda.com