Road safety

[Martin Cassini]

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 plough on regardless. Priority tells us to ignore our instincts and abandon our manners. Roads will never be safe until there is a level playing-field where all road-users can co-exist as equals. That involves scrapping the misguided system of main road priority along with the edifice of control and enforcement that supports it. Removing priority removes the "need" for lights and the need for speed, enabling everyone to merge in a merry (and planet-friendly) mix.