Abuse Part 94

Posted on 27th February 2020 by Martin Cassini

Interminable airtime is given over to child sexual abuse, but despite endless pitches to the Today Programme and other media outlets, state abuse involving over 20,000 avoidable deaths and life-changing injuries on our roads, annually, don’t get a look-in.

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Death penalty for “jaywalking”!

Posted on 25th February 2020 by Martin Cassini

18 March 2018. The woman killed by a driverless car, Elaine Herzberg, 49, was crossing the road outside a designated crosswalk. The AI machine had only learned to detect pedestrians on crosswalks! So human error/stupidity and system error/stupidity killed her, as sure as eggs is eggs. I’ve always thought jaywalking was a fabricated crime, just as speeding is. The fools in charge of roads policy want us to drive by coloured signals, road markings and numbers when we should be driving by context.

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Blithering Boris

Posted on 11th February 2020 by Martin Cassini

When you know about a subject, you are usually dismayed by the media’s portrayal or politicians’ grasp of it. Boris’s self-satisfied vauntings about his transport infrastructure plans are no exception. “Tree-dappled” my foot! What a disappointing bunch they are, Johnson, Shapps, et al.

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HSPoo

Posted on 11th February 2020 by Martin Cassini

So the HS2 juggernaut set in motion by Adonis is going ahead. Johnson lacked the balls to pull the plug. Over £100 billion, which could be invested so much more constructively elsewhere, will be sunk into ripping up pristine countryside for a revamp of a 19th century mode of transport. Has anyone calculated the carbon footprint of this pitiful project?

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Agency abuse

Posted on 28th January 2020 by Martin Cassini

More negligence in traffic policy emerged with the news that in the last five years, 38 avoidable deaths have occurred on the hard shoulder, or emergency lane, of “smart” motorways. An increase in capacity should not entail an increase in risk to life. Yet Highways England opened emergency lanes on bends. Why? And why didn’t they introduce lower speed limits? Who are the individuals responsible? Will they face corporate manslaughter charges?

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Child death and abuse

Posted on 24th January 2020 by Martin Cassini

Top of BBC’s news coverage today was the “catalogue of maternity failures at Margate Hospital” which led to the death of Harry Richford, just one week old. The coroner ruled it was “wholly avoidable”. The loss of a young life is appalling, especially when it’s avoidable. Yet the failures in the traffic system that cause over 20,000 avoidable deaths and injuries every year, many of them children, don’t get a mention, let alone a headline. As far as I know no coroner has ever pointed the finger at the policymakers who, in my book, are responsible for the untold injustice and harm on our roads that go unquestioned.

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Calling Grant Shapps!

Posted on 20th January 2020 by Martin Cassini

When I first blogged about HS2, in 2012, the estimated cost was £32bn. Today a leaked report put the figure at £106bn. Grant Shapps, show your mettle and stamp it out now, and talk to me about how to spend the money constructively!

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Ministerial and media myopia

Posted on 18th January 2020 by Martin Cassini

“Labour is the party that stood against cuts,” said Keir Starmer today. Yes, and like the other parties, it fails to see the scope in traffic system reform for social transformation and beneficial cuts. Ditto the media.

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More policy inanity

Posted on 18th January 2020 by Martin Cassini

The congestion charge exemption for sub-75 g/km vehicles ends in Oct 2021, and from 2025, zero emissions cars will lose their exemption too. Sadiq Khan’s rationale? Traffic pollution damages health and development. We know that. But zero emissions cars emit zero emissions, so what’s the rationale for excluding them? Meanwhile, those weapons of mass distraction, danger and delay – traffic lights – continue to multiply emissions by a factor of up to 29 times.

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Complaint

Posted on 18th January 2020 by Martin Cassini

In an item about SADS, the Today Programme spoke about the tragedy of a life cut short. There are 12 cases of SADS a week, but statistically, road casualties far outnumber them. Yet, despite the fact that most road casualties stem from a dysfunctional system, and are avoidable, my  countless attempts to air the issue with Today go unanswered.

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