The Intersection With No Traffic Light

In 2003, the city of Drachten in the Netherlands tried something radical. Traffic engineer Hans Monderman convinced officials to remove nearly all traffic signs, signals, and lane markings from a busy intersection where 8,000 cars passed daily. His theory was that drivers, freed from rules, would naturally negotiate with one another. For a while, the experiment seemed to work — accidents actually decreased as drivers slowed down, made eye contact, and cautiously inched forward.

But here is what the headlines rarely mention. Pedestrians with disabilities reported feeling terrified. Elderly residents stopped crossing altogether. The strong and confident drivers thrived. The vulnerable were pushed to the margins. Freedom without authority did not create equality — it created a world where the boldest determined the rules.

This is the book of Judges in a single image. "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes." What sounds like liberation becomes its own tyranny. Concubines are butchered, tribes are nearly annihilated, and daughters are seized from festivals — all by people convinced of their own righteousness. The strong devour the weak, and no one blows the whistle.

The closing line of Judges is not a celebration of freedom. It is a lament. It is Israel groaning for a King — ultimately, the King — whose authority does not crush the vulnerable but shelters them, whose righteous eyes see what our own eyes never could.