Back in the day they tried the overlapping red thing in my city. Once everyone got used to the new way of doing things the time when both light were red became a sort of anarchy zone. Everyone assumed that everyone else would strictly observe the red so they didn't have to.

We don't do that anymore...

I find myself reminded of an article about a German town that stripped out their lights and signs and just had everyone drive by basic priority rules. Apparently this sharply reduced incidents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohmte http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_Space_in_Bohmte

Some time ago I drove through that town without knowing anything about it. I didn't realize that they had such a concept, it just felt really stressful, because your normal expectations and intuitions don't apply.

This basic principle also explains why roundabouts (traffic circles) are so much safer than traffic lights. They feel unsafe to drivers, so they slow down and pay attention, instead of blindly trusting the lights.

If the roads feels less safer, there are less accidents. This happens when you reduce the lanes width as well. Or if you setup a fake roadwork

I believe this works when you do it for a limited number of places. If you do it everywhere people will adjust and it will get less safe.

In the UK, the lights go [red] → [red+amber] →​ [green], so that drivers are ready to move as soon as the light turns green. People don't run red lights.