Taking the drama out of a crisis

Posted on 28th August 2018 by Martin Cassini

Today’s Guardian led with a piece about a comprehensive Chinese study which shows that air pollution (already implicated in 7 million premature deaths a year worldwide) damages intelligence and cognitive function, not just in foetuses and children, but in adults, especially those over 64. Equality Streets offers a low-cost, low-risk way of making an immediate difference. Without signals causing stops, restarts and needless delay, traffic can move gently and merge at low revs, cutting emissions dramatically.

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The law is an ass (Part 383)

Posted on 19th August 2018 by Martin Cassini

Chief Constable Anthony Bangham of West Mercia Police, national head of roads policing, proposes penalising drivers for exceeding the speed limit by 1mph. “We are proud to be law enforcers,” he says. He seems to embody the dangerous banality of roads policy. Instead of teaching people to drive by context, the system teaches us to drive by numbers. If you’re doing 20 or 30 in a built-up area, you can hit a child with impunity. But on the open road, if you choose your own speed and cause no danger, you’re guilty, even though you’re innocent. If the law is an ass, nowhere is it more asinine than on the roads. As regards roads policy, the authorities are stuck in the dark ages. Today’s story. Earlier Telegraph report, which I missed at the time.

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When will they ever learn?

Posted on 12th August 2018 by Martin Cassini

Should the offence of dangerous cycling be brought into line with dangerous driving? A 3-month consultation has been announced. Cycling UK says it’s an opportunity to review road safety legislation in general.

As usual, public debate about road safety refers to law and enforcement. No mention is made of human nature, culture or education. Danger on the road, and the culture of aggression, are CAUSED by the misguided rules of the road. Given equality, and a driving test based on equality, the milk of human kindness would start to flow, and “accidents” would stop happening.

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Paradigm for paradise

Posted on 9th August 2018 by Martin Cassini

It’s anomalous, and scandalous, that while public services are cut to the bone, tens of £billions are blown on a traffic system which amounts to a public disservice. The system is dysfunctional. It fails on every count: safety, health, efficiency, cost, air quality, quality of life and space.

Road-users are drilled in the delinquent priority system, and unleashed onto a man-made war-zone. They should learn – through a new rulebook and driving test – to act sociably, i.e. take it more or less in turns. Then, with equality replacing priority, we would enjoy peaceful coexistence, shorter journey times, cleaner air, and the state would save a fortune on counterproductive traffic control.

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The Unbearable Smugness of HS2

Posted on 8th August 2018 by Martin Cassini

While the last ten years has seen the loss of 135 million miles of rural bus routes, a quarter of the staff at HS2 – that high-cost vanity project which does nothing to improve rural connectivity – are on six-figure salaries.

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Wizards of Oz

Posted on 8th August 2018 by Martin Cassini

CSIRO has made a breakthrough in the distribution and storage of hydrogen fuel. Story here.

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Priority v Equality

Posted on 31st July 2018 by Martin Cassini

How to make roads dangerous: give main roads priority over pedestrians and side roads. How to make roads safe: make junctions all-way give-ways, with equal rights and equal opportunity. Put the (legal) onus on the driver to beware the vulnerable road-user, and make the driver automatically liable in the event of an “accident”.

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Ingrained abuse

Posted on 31st July 2018 by Martin Cassini

Road “accidents” are the result of the system of priority, which imposes unequal rights and makes roads intrinsically dangerous. The driving test teaches the abuse and neglect that are inherent in the system.

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Abuse

Posted on 31st July 2018 by Martin Cassini

I’m trying to make roads safe, cut emissions and save the country 100s of £billions. Meanwhile the bodies who run the abusive system – the DfT, local traffic authorities, councils, MPs, Roads and Transport Ministers – resist reform and pursue a system which secures their jobs, but subjects the rest of us to danger, rage, inefficiency and lethal air quality. It’s an abuse of power on a monumental scale.

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More morons

Posted on 16th July 2018 by Martin Cassini

Jim O’Sullivan of Highways England wants a year to test an increase in the motorway speed limit when no roadworks are in progress, e.g. on Sundays, from 50 to 60. They want another year to consider whether adults, with proof of proficiency in the form of a driving licence, are capable of driving in a straight line at 60.

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