Cable (and) cars

Posted on 23rd May 2011 by Martin Cassini

In the Guardian (21 May), Vince Cable warned about the scale of economic decline and the coming squeeze. He stressed the time and pain required to rebuild our broken economic model. He predicts the impact on living standards will come not from cuts, but from world prices and a 20% devaluation in sterling. I’m no economist, and Cable is no fool, e.g. he is aware of naked streets. But is he missing the pig picture and a stunning opportunity? In traffic system reform there is vast scope for civilising streets, making roads safe, providing tens of billions of kind spending cuts, cutting the carbon footprint, providing sustainable jobs. No-one loses, except fat cat traffic salesmen, technocrats and bureaucrats. How loudly do I have to SHOUT? Is anyone out there listening!?

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Dissing and disabling us

Posted on 22nd May 2011 by Martin Cassini

The Observer has an article about indoor pursuits and health+safety fears causing a decline in the physical strength of children. Similarly, by prohibiting autonomous acts, traffic controls weaken our ability to make decisions. Increasingly, pedestrians and drivers are incapable of crossing roads or junctions without the “help” of signals. Through their automated controls, are traffic authorities disabling us, and rearing a race of automatons?

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The point of Poynton

Posted on 21st May 2011 by Martin Cassini

Traffic control produces congestion, pollutes the planet, kills the joy, sucks tens of billions from the public purse, makes roads dangerous, and yes, kills children. Spontaneous lights-out-of-action events and lights-off trials show that humans are more than capable of negotiating safe movement when free to do so. Yet most official policy and practice are still stuck in the dark ages. At a TfL conference last week, the talk was mostly about sophisticated control systems and the need for enforcement in all aspects of life on the road. Meanwhile, Ben Hamilton-Baillie and Howard Murray are pioneering a shared space scheme at the busy crossroads in Poynton, between Stoke and Stockport. Who says it can only work on streets with light traffic? A trial signal switch-off took place this week. Traffic engineers were stunned to see traffic queues melt away with no danger to pedestrians – and that’s even before junction modifications have taken place.

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Huhne in another context

Posted on 18th May 2011 by Martin Cassini

Whether Chris Huhne tried to pass the buck or not, his saga reveals the contortions to which citizens can be driven to escape the tentacles of a system that values the letter of the law above the spirit. Speed does not kill. It’s inappropriate speed that kills, or speed in the wrong hands. Life is about infinite variables, so one-size-fits-all is a contradiction in terms. BRAKE! would claim that freedom to exercise individual judgement based on context is a licence to drive carelessly. On the contrary, it’s a blueprint for driving with true care and attention. If pedestrians, especially children are near, let us proceed at walking pace. As a reasonable trade-off, when the road is clear, let us, within reason, drive at our own chosen speed.

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The anti-social network

Posted on 17th May 2011 by Martin Cassini

The traffic control system.

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Against my religion?

Posted on 10th May 2011 by Martin Cassini

I’ve written elsewhere that filtering on opportunity to cut journey time constitutes a higher imperative than stopping unnecessarily at traffic lights and adding CO2. The idea that obeying regulation at the expense of the planet and in defiance of commonsense is “against my religion” has occurred to me as an argument, but I resisted it, because Equality Streets is about freedom from dogma. Second thoughts were prompted by the case of ex-BBC producer, Devan Maistry, claiming unfair dismissal. The Birmingham tribunal ruled that his belief in the ‘higher purpose’ of public broadcasting to promote cultural interchange and social cohesion constitutes a religion or belief, and can be protected by the same laws that outlaw religious discrimination. Driving by numbers rather than context is against my beliefs, as is watching traffic signals rather than the road, and queueing next to empty bus lanes when I could be making progress …

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Citizen crim

Posted on 9th May 2011 by Martin Cassini

“Speeders” all – Harriet Harman, Stephen Fry, Martin Cassini, Chris Huhne (and you?) – tarred with the same brush for driving according to context rather than driving by numbers. Were we involved in accidents? No. But we crossed a line painted by a regulator. The virtuous element of the regulation cause is doomed because the lowest common denominator driver is beyond the law anyway. The revenue-raising cause is a vicious circle embracing a widening gap between Them (the traffic authorities) and Us (the citizen crim). If ever there was a fabricated crime, “jaywalking” is it, but “speeding” comes a close second. What about the number of times we drive below the limit – do we get any credit for that? As if.

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Relative values

Posted on 8th May 2011 by Martin Cassini

According to happiness studies, we value work, money and property at the expense of relationships, writes Tim Lewis in this piece about The Social Animal by David Brooks. The same could be said of traffic regulation which generates hostility instead of empathy – greater store is set by traffic controls than road-user relationships.

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Cycling on pavements

Posted on 6th May 2011 by Martin Cassini

Useful reference in a post by John Adams: ‘On the subject of pavement cycling, Mike Chalkley found Home Office guidelines from 1999 that state: “… provisions are not aimed at responsible cyclists who feel obliged to use the pavement from fear of traffic, and who show consideration to other road users … officers recognise that the fixed penalty needs to be used with considerable discretion” (ref T5080/4, 23 February 2004).’ In a comment, Anthony Cartnell talks some sense, but not when he says, “the motor vehicle is the villain of the piece”. The villain of the piece is traffic regulation based on priority (an engineering model) when life on the road should be based on equality (a social model).

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Good cops

Posted on 6th May 2011 by Martin Cassini

I’ve been stopped several times for cycling (carefully) through red lights, twice by police cyclists in the City, once by a motorcyclist in Russell Square. I listen politely to what they have to say, then ask if I can ask a couple of questions. I start with something like, “Can you tell me why I have to stop at red when no-one is using the green?” After a few minutes’ discussion, the cycle cops waved me on and basically wished me well. The motorbike cop looked at his watch and remembered he had to attend an incident. The other day I crossed red lights in the car (having checked there was no conflicting traffic, of course), then stopped when I saw blue lights in the mirror. I engaged the officer in conversation with the same result. Even the police – the last refuge of intelligent discretion – see some rules as futile.

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