Not to denigrate Gosport but …

Posted on 20th June 2018 by Martin Cassini

Now there will be wall-to-wall media coverage of the Gosport hospital deaths (from over-prescription of painkillers) in the 1990s – 456 plus possibly another 200. Will the media kick up a similar storm over the 24,000 killed and hurt on our roads every year? No, they won’t even mention it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Child abuse

Posted on 19th June 2018 by Martin Cassini

The traffic system is based on priority aka inequality. It sets the stage for conflict. It puts vulnerable road-users in danger. It puts the onus on the child to beware the driver, when it could and should be the other way round. By making children learn age-inappropriate road safety drill to help them survive on roads made lethal by the system of inequality, it is guilty of child abuse. The officals and the ministers I’ve briefed who take no action, as well as the councillors and council leaders, the DfT and the highways departments – all collude in this child abuse. You know who you are.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Media apathy or censorship?

Posted on 18th June 2018 by Martin Cassini
Yesterday I emailed several BBC news programmes and national newspapers the following. So far zero response:
 
So there will be no Brexit dividend, and we face tax increases to fund the NHS. Meanwhile, a fount of public money, currently squandered on a dysfunctional system that acts to our detriment, is overlooked.
 
Bizarrely, the field is ringfenced. I’m talking about traffic control. Annually, it costs tens of billions, but 22,000 killed or hurt on our roads every year testify to its bankruptcy.
 
Traffic officers have persuaded us we need their interventions to keep us safe. Poppycock. When traffic lights are out of action and we are free to use common sense, we approach carefully and filter. Congestion disappears. Snarls turn to smiles. Fuel use and emissions drop dramatically, because filtering at low speeds is up to 29 times more efficient than stopping and re-starting. As soon as the lights are “working” again, the jams, the danger, the choking air, the stress and rage are back.
 
As I explain in this piece, traffic regulation is the last bastion of institutionalised inequality, and a vast source of beneficial spending cuts.
 
Martin Cassini
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Grenfell parallels

Posted on 18th June 2018 by Martin Cassini

Coverage of the avoidable Grenfell fire continues unabated. Ben Okri’s critique of system failures (Today, 14 June) that led to the disaster is equally relevant to the dysfunctional traffic control system, which continues to set the stage for avoidable conflict and claim innocent lives (in far greater numbers).

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

IFS call for tax increases – cobblers!

Posted on 24th May 2018 by Martin Cassini

Today the IFS called for tax increases to fund the NHS. Once again, the think tanks and media outlets (Today, Radio 4, for example) overlook the field of dysfunctional traffic policy. Reform would provide ample funds for the NHS as well as the police and armed forces, and would bring a host of accompanying benefits.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

No way back

Posted on 27th April 2018 by Martin Cassini

This piece about Mayer Hillman leaves little doubt that the world with its dependence on fossil fuels is on an irreversible path of self-destruction. If the UK went zero-emissions tomorrow, it would make barely any difference. Individual acts such as re-useable coffee cups are drops in the ocean. My plan to let traffic filter at low speeds and low revs would make only a small local difference to the amount of carbon in the atmosphere (though it would bring a host of other benefits). Even adopting it worldwide would hardly dent the inevitable decline of the Earth’s biosphere. Depressing? Yes, but not to the point where we give up trying.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Telegraph piece

Posted on 27th March 2018 by Martin Cassini

Article by Tom Welsh

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Will they or won’t they?

Posted on 27th March 2018 by Martin Cassini

Coverage of my attempt to get Barnstaple to go traffic light-free, starting with a double T-junction similar to the one in Portishead. My response to Councillor Greenslade to follow.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Micro-management

Posted on 11th February 2018 by Martin Cassini

Traffic management in London beggars belief. Traffic lights blocking flow at every turn. Delancey St in Camden blocked back. Ditto Baker St because green time so short. Lights causing avoidable congestion across the city, even at minor junctions such as Hornsey Rd and Tollington Way. Tens of billions misspent on despoiling public realm, ensnaring countless victims in needless delay, contrived danger, and polluted air – all on the altar of official obsession with micro-managing our every move.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Today’s hypocrisy

Posted on 11th February 2018 by Martin Cassini

Sometimes I have to reach for the off switch when the Today Programme is on. Last week, I switched off at Justin Webb’s feigned outrage and nagging at an Oxfam guy over sexual misconduct. I can’t help thinking that Today’s editorial policy is cock-eyed, ie it has an obsessive eye on the cock, a hypocritical fascination with salacious out-of-hours shenanigans. Meanwhile, they refuse to give airtime to my critique of the traffic system which, despite helping kill, injure and pollute the population, goes unchecked and unchallenged.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment