Different cuts

Posted on 8th October 2012 by Martin Cassini

George Osborne (Today Programme) wants to “tackle unfairness” by making welfare cuts of £10bn. Meanwhile, traffic system reform can still* provide annual cuts of £50bn that will hurt no-one except traffic managers and signal salesmen (*as I’ve been saying for years).

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The point about Poynton

Posted on 30th September 2012 by Martin Cassini

Last week I finished a draft edit of a film about Poynton, a community thriving again after liberation from decades of oppressive traffic engineering. More material needs to be shot, so it’s still a couple of months away from publication, but it shows how public money can be spent for the good, rather than the misery of all.

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

Deference

Posted on 30th September 2012 by Martin Cassini

The Sixties brought a refreshing attack on class deference. We need a similar shift on the roads. People on foot – stop deferring to people on wheels! Motorists, while traffic lights dictate your every move, I appreciate this is a big ask, but – stop assuming priority, and start deferring to people on foot! Hand in hand with equality for all road-users should go liberation from the system of traffic control by which they make us live and die.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Criminal justice and traffic policy – both need reform

Posted on 30th September 2012 by Martin Cassini

In arch-conservative Texas, a revolution in criminal justice is in progress. Condemnation is giving way to understanding, incarceration to rehabilitation. As a result, prison numbers are dropping dramatically, as are crime and recidivism. “I am getting the biggest bang possible for taxpayers’ bucks while doing something positive for society,” says Judge Robert Francis (Observer piece). Presumably arch-conservative Britain will wise up eventually, not only on the real crime front, but on the fabricated crime front represented by counterproductive traffic policy.

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

Priority = inequality

Posted on 25th August 2012 by Martin Cassini

In the past I’ve written that if the law is an ass, nowhere is it more asinine than in the traffic arena. But is it the law, or traffic managers’ interpretation of the law? There is no legal requirement, i.e. no law, that says we must have priority or signal control. Yet both are imposed at almost every junction in the land. “Inequality kills”, writes Tanya Gold in another context (social immobility) in today’s Guardian. Inequality kills on the road too, every day of every year. Not by chance, but by design – devised and imposed by Public Enemy No.1 – the traffic manager who fails to think outside the box marked “priority”.

 

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

20mph again

Posted on 17th August 2012 by Martin Cassini

20mph is in the news, so at the risk of repetition: Who is the better judge of how fast or slow to go – you and me at the time and the place, or limits fixed by absent regulators? Painting by numbers has nothing to do with grown-up art. Driving by numbers has nothing to do with grown-up driving. Context is the key to appropriate speed and approriate action.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Will 20mph save us?

Posted on 15th August 2012 by Martin Cassini

Deaths and serious injuries are up in 20mph zones but up even more in 30mph. Official commentators say the jury is still out on the value of 20mph zones. My view is that true road safety will never be achieved by numbers. We should drive according to context. Let us go at walking pace on busy streets, especially when children are around, and at our own chosen speed when conditions allow, e.g. on a clear motorway. In other words, let us use our own judgement, preferably informed by education, ability and experience. Story here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Lethal traffic contol

Posted on 8th August 2012 by Martin Cassini

Snuffed out in Leicester yesterday: the lives of two toddlers in an “accident” at traffic lights. The police are studying CCTV footage to ascertain responsibility. Will they question the rules or design of the road? Do pigs fly? The dead toddlers, the bereaved family, the drivers “responsible” – all are victims of a lethal traffic control system. The people really responsible will remain anonymous and never be brought to book. Piteous story here.

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

Where’s the real crime?

Posted on 3rd August 2012 by Martin Cassini

Full-time carer, Alec Dennis, 61, pleaded guilty to driving at 52 in a 30 limit on his way to rushing his son, who had stomach pains, to hospital. He was worried about leaving his disabled wife, but feared his son had appendicitis (it turned out to be kidney stones). He didn’t call an ambulance because of delays experienced in the past. He got 6 points, £85 fine and £15 victim surcharge. The time of day the speed camera caught him? 4.20 a.m. On the face of it, his conviction sounds criminally inappropriate. Story here.

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

Pedestrians unite!

Posted on 2nd August 2012 by Martin Cassini

Useful corrective piece by Zoe Williams about pedestrians, and the failure of the authorities to highlight or address the danger they face. She is right to be angry, but as with most commentators. she misses the root cause of our road safety problems. I disagree with her checklist of measures to make roads safe for cyclists, but agree with her general thrust that until roads are fit for people on foot, they’ll be fit for no-one. “… Cyclists want nothing more radical than safe roads”. Road policy supports “motor hegemony [which] we senselessly accept.” As I often put it, the biggest indictment of the current system is it puts the onus on children to beware motorists when it could and should be the other way round.

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