Equality Streets

In this Mail article (thanks to FFDF for posting), a “spokesperson” for Sadiq Khan claims the major cause of urban congestion is roadworks. Not in my observation and experience. The chief cause of congestion (and to paraphrase Joni Mitchell, I’ve looked at this from all sides now) is those weapons of mass distraction, danger and delay: traffic lights.

As for 20mph limits, I couldn’t agree more with the aim: to slow traffic in urban settings where people on foot, especially children, are about; but couldn’t disagree more with the means to achieve it, viz. telling people to drive by numbers when they should be learning to drive by context. We should be free to use our own judgement within a legal framework that makes the mighty defer to the vulnerable, and makes the mighty automatically liable for any hurt or damage to the more vulnerable.

I’ve said this a thousand times, but it bears repetition: in rural settings, in the absence of a bridge or flyover, junctions should be all-way give-ways – not ruled by a priority system which puts minor road-users at a dangerous disadvantage, making them wait indefinitely or risk venturing into fast-moving priority traffic coming at them from opposite directions.