Recently, many traffic lights and street markings were temporarily removed from a heavily traveled street in a major metropolitan area.
Given that...
Many traffic lights and street markings were temporarily removed from a heavily traveled street in a major metropolitan area.
This street experiences significant volumes of automobile traffic.
The number of accidents on the street was expected to increase.
The street experienced no reduction in traffic.
How can it be that...
The number of accidents was greatly reduced.
Evaluate
Like many Paradox questions, this involves a comparison. After the traffic lights and street markings were removed, the number of accidents was expected to increase compared to when the traffic lights and street markings were present. There's also an element of causation implied here: it's natural to think that a lack of traffic lights and street markings would cause more accidents to occur.
There must be some other factor involved which had an even greater impact on the number of accidents, causing them to be greatly reduced. What typically leads to a reduction in the number of accidents on a street? And how might the removal of traffic lights and street signs cause that accident-reducing situation to occur?
Goal
Expect an answer to describe something that could easily lead to a reduction in the number of accidents, particularly something that might result from the removal of traffic lights and signage. Beware of answers which do the opposite of what we want, describing a situation that could lead to even more accidents.