March 2011 Blog Posts (30)

The GLA is introducing £120 fines for drivers who leave their engines running while stationary. Of course insensitive idlers – usually those who don’t pay for their fuel – need to wise up, but nifty public awareness and use of the carrot would work. Instead, one-track-minded officialdom devises new ways to sharpen sticks at public expense.

How does Westminster Council justify new "instant contravention" powers allowing wardens to nab motorists who stop for seconds? "To deter unlicensed cabbies". Where is the protection for you and me? We can appeal if we feel we have a case. How reassuring. Thus do the traffic authorities grow their tentacles and truss us up, ever tighter.

Unerringly, the "debate" on Today about Spain reducing its national speed limit from 75 to 68mph "to conserve fuel" missed the point. George Monbiot claimed, spuriously, that "going faster means more noise", and Tiff Needell complained, reasonably, about loss of choice. Surely the real point is about the vanity of one-size-fits-all "solutions". It’s not speed that counts, it’s revs. If…

Most junctions could be safe civilised spaces, but they are dehumanised by traffic experts. Instead of harnessing our instinct to take it in turns based on time of arrival, they make us live and die by rules of priority which impose unequal rights, make roads dangerous, and produce a "need" for traffic controls. It’s a circular argument incorporating a dead end. Government…

Football and traffic regulation have plenty in common. Their governing bodies are both anti-freedom and antediluvian. Both are scandalously overdue for reform. On the roads, we could replace regulation and control with one rule: drive on the left; and two bits of advice: take it in turns and mind how you go. "Accidents" would virtually disappear, but in the event of a disputed…

Chris Kelly reminded me that Milton Keynes is installing signals at roundabout junctions which by all accounts used to flow perfectly well. A case of regression to the mean-spirited and counterproductive?

In today’s Guardian Weekend, Oliver Burkeman identifies leeway for choice as a key to the success of WeightWatchers. "Allowing people a feeling of autonomy rather than insisting on rigid meal plans makes it far likelier they’ll stick to the programme … we need this feeling of autonomy in order to thrive … its points system, while not a straitjacket, is still pretty strict – it’s the…

Thanks to Ian Perry for emailing this. It's about traffic lights out of action at Frideswide Sq, Oxford. Some road-users want lights left off, but others say over their dead body. (Who can blame them as long as the system is based on priority rather than…

"What don’t you like about traffic lights?" I was asked by The One Show’s Anita Rani in Portishead today for an item that is due to air tomorrow (Wed 2 March). "They make us stop when it’s safe to go. They take our eyes off the road. They encourage inappropriate speed, generate hostility, extend journey times. They deny infinite filtering opportunities and expressions of fellow…