Everything costs. Either we pay individually or collectively, directly or indirectly.

If personal, individual responsibility were good enough, we wouldn't have regulations affecting motor vehicle operation: licenses as statements of minimal competency; compulsory taxes, fees, permits, etc., to pay for roads commensurate with usage; laws regulating usage of common assets -- speed limits, traffic guides, etc.; penalties to nudge people into compliance.

Human nature being what it is, every society has laws. Always have, always will.

Representative forms of government are responsible to the people. When the people perceive that government has failed in its duty to represent the people, the courts step in. Either we pay ad hoc, through the inefficient means of lawsuits to settle liability, or through ordering/encouraging representatives to adopt universal policies to nudge us toward a more consistent and overall more cost effective solution.

But it takes time, information, education and often re-education to change behaviors.

For example, recently Fort Worth has been experimenting with switching traffic lights to four-way blinking red lights on weekends in some areas, particularly those undergoing revitalization and gentrification of long abandoned and neglected commercial and residential zones. Most drivers appear to understand that four-way blinking red lights work exactly like four-way stop sign intersections.

But it's surprising how many drivers don't understand it and describe it as "confusing", with occasional bouts of short term free-for-alls with a tiny handful of drivers going out of turn and creating momentary anarchy. A few times when I've been riding my bike and saw this bit of chaos I'd take the lane, come to a complete stop and wave ahead the vehicles that had been passed over two or three times because other drivers had cut them off. Presumably the city has installed video cameras and traffic monitoring devices to evaluate these experiments.

This is why personal responsibility for behavior alone fails as a policy, unless accompanied by equal emphasis on education and well designed nudges or traffic calming methods, and law enforcement activity to issue warnings and summonses for court appearances.

One of our more optimistic city advisers linked to an article about the successes in Germany, the Netherlands, etc., using intersections, roundabouts, etc., without any traffic lights or signs. The problem with those examples is we comparing countries with long histories of a system of more stringent requirements for motor vehicle ownership and operation, greater personal responsibility and civic duty, with America, which as a culture emphasizes personal rights over commensurate responsibility. The American culture has gradually shifted away from personal responsibility and civic duty, toward personal gratification and shifting personal debts toward collectively making it someone else's problem. It will take time to shift the culture to a point where traffic circles, no-signal intersections and similar designs will work here.