Martin Cassini's Blog (364)

Ambulance driver, Paul Bex, 51, from Duxford, was recorded doing 102mph with blue lights flashing while transporting an organ. The law says it's illegal for ambulances to speed if they are not carrying a patient. I might have said it a 1000 times, but speed doesn't kill. It's inappropriate speed that kills - the kind of speed you get at priority and signal-controlled…

Today's Metro has a big public ad by TfL and the Mayor of London announcing something we already knew: that bus lanes are finally open to motorbikes. Who are the morons who banned them in the first place - sunning themselves on a public pension? Justice would be better served if they were publicly pilloried, along with their fellow devisers of traffic policy which has been causing untold injustice and harm for…

Is coercion the only language that traffic authorities can speak? TfL is planning trials of 20mph zones, with average speed camera enforcement. Of course low speeds are crucial when pedestrians are around, but what's the justification for 24-hour restrictions? Rather than holistic solutions embracing culture change and roadway redesign, the first resort of traffic policymakers is control and enforcement. In failing to harness…

I’m toying with another site, thinking of "re-branding". What do readers think? See Equality Streets.

I’m always on the lookout for parallel philosophies. In last Saturday’s Guardian, Richard Sennett, professor of sociology at the LSE, welcomed the demise of the ASBO. They hand out "restraining orders to prevent people from possibly committing a crime. Blair thought social behaviour could be ‘reformed’ top down, and in this he exactly missed the point. Cultures hold together or fall apart for reasons that transcend power. On…

An experiment by two US psychology professors, Daniel Simons and Chistopher Chabris, involves a…

I forget the reference (an article on post-feminism?), but somewhere this weekend I read that "inequality has been done". Not on the roads, it hasn't. Recently I pitched a FiT (filter in turn) solution for an out-of-town junction which has a poor accident record, where the council is thinking of installing lights. My traffic engineer associate says we need evidence to prove FiT will work outside…

A trouble family in Birmingham has cost the taxpayer £25m, providing a case for early education and support to help people become constructive members of society rather than predators and parasites. Treat causes rather than symptoms, invest in prevention, and society will reap the benefits long term. Re the roads, it’s something I tried to argue…

Called "the largest transfer of power from the state to the individual", the big society has an obvious application to the roads. Provided there is a change in culture from priority to equality - with roadway redesign to express that equality, and legal changes to support it - scrapping most traffic controls and leaving us to our own devices will see many of our congestion and road safety problems vanish in a puff of exhaust…

After shelving our 2008 proposal for a lights-off trial, Bristol, after pressure from the successful trial in the nearby town of Portishead, could delay no longer. But instead of giving us a few meaty four-way junctions, we were given two small, partly one-way junctions. One was at the foot of a straight downhill stretch which encouraged inappropriate speed. Also, the council was "unable" to fund a public awareness campaign -…

In yesterday’s Guardian, Polly Toynbee had a sobering article about the prospect of NHS privatisation under the new government. "If GPs think they will be free to commission who they like among trusted local consultants, think again. Monitor is to become a competition regulator, whose first duty is to enforce a free market. This means all NHS contracts will fall under EU competition law, so tenders must be advertised…

Richmond’s take on the plan to switch off traffic signals can be found here. Some useful comments too.

Politically I’m unaffiliated, but my calls for individual liberty, responsibility, and kind cuts from traffic system reform have been aired at Conservative Home. Article and comments…

From The Northampton Chronicle & Echo: "Motorists had to be careful during rush hour in the town centre after the traffic lights in Upper Mounts were hit by a power cut at about 3pm. The failure also affected local businesses, including the Mounts Baths, which was closed until 5pm. The…

There is too much fear on the road - a sort of generalised stranger danger. As fellow humans, drivers don't want to bully pedestrians, but the rules of road tell them to ditch their manners in obedience to a system of control which takes absolute precedence. We are cowed into submission by rules which make us cow others into submission. The scenario I'm picturing: waiting to cross the road as a pedestrian and being…

Priority based on status of road is discriminatory. It supports inequality. By contrast, filter in turn (FiT) – based on time of arrival – expresses equal status, equal rights, equal responsibility, equal opportunity. The dysfunctional rules of the road defy civilised values. They have an unseen hand in countless "accidents", yet they are supported by the law of the land.

How often do you approach a green light, as I did on my bike just now, only for it to change to red before you reach it? Meanwhile the poor suckers on the other road have been waiting while no-one was using the green. The controllers tell us they have ITS (intelligent traffic systems) which can sense demand. No, the most intelligent system is the human ability to negotiate movement and to make subtle adjustments in the blink…