There's a piece about the Ashford shared space scheme
here (back tab to return) ... Is it inevitable that a news report will always feature doubters and detractors? Also they don't address blind people's concerns about shared surfaces. It's only a mini-report, but even so ...
Added by Martin Cassini on March 3, 2009 at 16:00 —
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Another specious public-funded road safety ad can be seen
here (back tab to return). What gets me is the way the system puts the onus on
children to beware motorists, when it could and should be the other way round. The first step towards making Roads FiT for People is to replace priority based on status of road, which generates hostility, with equality based on time of arrival, which levels the playing-field and stimulates…
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Added by Martin Cassini on March 3, 2009 at 15:30 —
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The road ”safety” ad, where a car driver hits a motorcyclist, is a classic piece of official improperganda. Unwittingly, it illustrates the barbaric rules of the road, which condemn drivers at T-junctions to beware traffic from opposite directions, and to spot a suitable gap. Instead of devising a system in which humans can negotiate safe movement, the unmasked hypocrites of the TCD (traffic control dictatorship) preach safety, but contrive a system in which we must live, die and carry the can.
Added by Martin Cassini on March 3, 2009 at 0:00 —
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Difficult to defend Robert Bennett for doing 122mph on a wet road with his 14-year old son riding pillion. The judge said the bike would have been a lethal missile if Bennett had lost control. Isn’t that the case at 70mph, OK, not as potentially damaging but lethal all the same? The judgement is based on a hypothetical. There was no loss of control, indeed it looked a competent piece of riding. In the BBC TV news item, the reporter described the bend he was approaching, emotively, as “sharp”.…
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Added by Martin Cassini on March 2, 2009 at 16:00 —
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Above a harbour beach on a balmy Sunday in Devon, a family of four was sitting on a bench. One of the children got up and started running about in a little circle. “Oh no you don’t, Miss!” barked mother, nipping her daughter’s impulse in the bud. Just a few steps down, the sand rolled out a carpet of gold. Reaching the far side of the beach I looked back. Both children were still immobilised. (Yes, this can be seen as loosely analogous to parking controls.)
Added by Martin Cassini on March 1, 2009 at 15:00 —
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Just saw this: http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/sevenoaks/Danger-junction/article-725896-detail/article.html?cacheBust=PzXCPeE6A9u5&success=true#community and posted this: As ever, the root of the problem is the system of priority, which imposes anti-social rights-of-way. In all other walks of life we take it in turns in the sequence, not the direction in which we arrive. Why not on the road? When lights are out of action, and there is uncertainty about priority, we do what is natural, safe and…
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Added by Martin Cassini on February 28, 2009 at 15:00 —
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If we could show how – at minimal cost and virtually overnight – road accidents could be eliminated, traffic congestion could be eased, road rage resolved, police time freed up, fuel use and journey times cut, environmental targets met, life on the roads made safe and civilised, not just for drivers but pedestrians and public transport as well – would you be interested?
We propose a demonstration project that could provide a blueprint for an efficient road network and a convivial…
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Added by Martin Cassini on February 28, 2009 at 0:00 —
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A recent RoSPA press release states: “... the ultimate aim is the continued reduction of road deaths and injuries.” Amberlight says that 35,000 KSIs a year (killed and seriously injured) is unacceptable. Any hint of self-congratulation at the annual death count dropping below 3000 (seen in some press pronouncements at the time) is unspeakable, especially when you consider the point made by John Adams: "accident figures are distorted because old people hardly dare cross the road and children are…
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Added by Martin Cassini on February 26, 2009 at 17:30 —
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Bad parenting is like traffic control. Put a toddler in a house with breakable knick-knacks, be intolerant about its need to explore, then scold it when the inevitable happens. In the same way, our traffic control system sets the stage for conflict by making us operate within a framework based on directional priority, which negates social custom and fosters aggression. Then the puppeteers deflect blame and hand down punishment when the inevitable happens.
Added by Martin Cassini on February 25, 2009 at 13:00 —
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Blind people usually welcome the idea of shared space, but not shared surfaces (where kerbs are removed and there is no defined pavement). FiT Roads believes that mutual tolerance will flourish and vulnerable users be
safer on roads free of standard priority and traffic lights, but until the desired behaviour shift (considerate filter-in-turn) has been shown to survive the possible Hawthorne effect (novelty wearing off, might assuming right), it is easy to understand why blind people…
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Added by Martin Cassini on February 24, 2009 at 22:30 —
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With all due disrespect for one-dimensional regulation, and for “campaigns” such as 'Driving for Better Business', which fail in their duty to question authority and pursue liberating change - if the ban on in-car phone use is justified because it distracts us from concentrating on the road, should traffic lights, speed cameras and speed limits be banned for the same reason?
Added by Martin Cassini on February 23, 2009 at 21:00 —
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Given the wasted energy and added emissions produced by spurious traffic controls, I've always seen as hypocritical government "advice" to switch to longlife lightbulbs, etc. Fresh proof that much environmentalism is fundamentally religious, writes Simon Hoggart (Guardian, 22 Feb 09), is like baling out the Titanic with a teaspoon (from David Mackay's
Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air). Switching off your phone charger for a day is used up in one second of car driving. Switching it…
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Added by Martin Cassini on February 21, 2009 at 19:00 —
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Lately I've been concentrating on winning support for a Trial to compare junction safety and efficiency with and without traffic controls. As Kenneth Todd has said, it shouldn't be up to us to prove controls are unnecessary, but for the authorities to prove otherwise, something they have never done. In fact there is no law that requires junction priority or control. Wouldn't it be refreshing if we could just abolish priority and lights today - OK tomorrow, with an accompanying publicity…
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Added by Martin Cassini on February 19, 2009 at 23:30 —
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Who is the better judge of when or how fast it's safe to go - you and me at the time and the place, or lights and limits fixed by absent regulators?
Added by Martin Cassini on February 18, 2009 at 11:29 —
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Too many children are prisoners. Like the three I saw today (aged about 5 to 11) having lunch in a pub with their parents. Mother was quiet; father quite vocal, but his conversation consisted entirely of instructions and prohibitions. "Sit still. Eat your food. Be quiet. Behave." In the faces of the children: resentment, reluctant obedience, gritted teeth. There is a tendency to equate discipline with restriction and punishment, but the primary meaning of discipline is learning by example, as a…
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Added by Martin Cassini on February 15, 2009 at 21:00 —
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Kenneth Todd calls traffic management an exercise in self-defeat. Spot on. How many organisations are dedicated to road safety, and how many miss the point? The system they accept is a system with a flaw: main road priority. Priority gives one set of road-users rights-of-way over others, not because they had arrived first - which is the civilised way to behave - but because of the artificial distinction between main and minor roads. Main roads were granted "superior" rights with a licence to…
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Added by Martin Cassini on February 12, 2009 at 9:30 —
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What is it that makes roads inhospitable, particularly in towns and cities? Domination of public space by vehicles. Why do vehicles dominate? They are licensed to dominate - by the rules of the road. If you are driving on a main road, the rules licence you to plough on. If a child or blind person or another car is waiting to cross, you are required to ignore them. If you want to do the decent thing - let them go because they were there first - you'd be disobeying the rules. The authorities…
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Added by Martin Cassini on February 8, 2009 at 17:30 —
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More reports about dubious traffic management:
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/yourtown/witney/4101733.Lights__making_traffic_worse_/
Added by Martin Cassini on February 6, 2009 at 2:00 —
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I started this thread in the absence of a general message area (in fact I just emailed Ning to suggest that instead of the largely trivial activity summary on the main page, they think about a bulletin board). Anyway, today brought valuable additions to the group: Mark Wadsworth (quick mind, libertarian views, Westminster based), Gary Waldron (practical intelligence), John Shepherd (retired businessman, plain speaker) and Chad Dornsife, Executive Director of the BHSPI (Best Highway Safety…
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Added by Martin Cassini on February 4, 2009 at 14:30 —
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With my linguistic punctiliousness it was with shock horror that I spotted a typo (their for there!) in a forum post about speed. Ning doesn't allow editing after the (tragic) event, so it remains there for ever unless I delete it. But it's followed by posts from other members, so I'm gritting my teeth and learning to live with it. Reminds me of a story about an aged don at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He played the organ at chapel services and was punctilious about his music. One night some…
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Added by Martin Cassini on February 4, 2009 at 0:32 —
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