Control or trust?

Posted on 9th April 2011 by Martin Cassini

Supporters of speed cameras wonder why drivers can’t just observe the rules. We don’t object to just regulation, but as long as traffic policy is based on the unjust system of priority, it must be challenged. Commenting on electoral reform, Neal Lawson of Compass says the political control and command structure is a thing of the past. “Now you need to go out and win the moral case. You have to trust the people.” As supporters of Equality Streets know, this campaign for traffic system reform is based on a trust in human nature rather than an obsession with controlling it. For the current traffic control system, there is no moral case.

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Red light Ken

Posted on 7th April 2011 by Martin Cassini

Ken Livingstone says (ES, 7.4.11), “We now know that at least 4,000 people die prematurely every year because of poor air quality.” Bizarre that it has taken him so long to wise up to this well-known fact. Under his watch as Mayor, over 1000 sets of traffic lights were added to London streets, each costing hundreds of thousands to install, more to maintain and run, making congestion worse, and blighting streetscapes. Despite his duty to reduce emissions, he stood by for seven years while Midland Rd was closed during construction of the tunnel link. He failed to order traffic signal switch-off, or at least re-timing, at that chronically-congested junction with Euston Rd. His officers are at least as much to blame, as was Camden’s environment chief, John Thane, under whose nose the scandal played out.

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Sweet FA?

Posted on 4th April 2011 by Martin Cassini

The FA demands respect when it should be earning it. How can you respect an organisation that fails so abjectly to adopt umpiring techniques that have been available since the advent of TV action replay? In the same way, how can we respect traffic rules that subvert social instinct and common law principles of equal rights and responsibilities?

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Heavy duty control

Posted on 3rd April 2011 by Martin Cassini

No doubt traffic engineers puff with pride at their ability to apportion equal green time to the multiple movements at interchanges such as Vauxhall Cross and Trafalgar Square (6 secs per min). Does it bother them that their complex algorithms kill the rhythm of natural flow, meaning that at least half the time road-users are disadvantaged and needlessly delayed, including pedestrians held like sheep in “pens”, to be released only when Big Brother Red allows? Curious that such resources are thrown at managing these movements, when most of the time, self-management would do a better job. The wisdom of crowds is a thing of beauty. Traffic control is a thing of duty – heavy duty!

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Google + Equality Streets v the TCD

Posted on 3rd April 2011 by Martin Cassini

High on Google’s list of good management tips is “empower your team and don’t micromanage.” If the TCD (traffic control dictatorship) had a list, its core directive would no doubt be the polar opposite, along the lines of “stamp on initiative, give road-users no power of choice or discretion, micromanage them, dictate their every move, and book them if they stray an inch.”

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No traffic controls = civilised streets

Posted on 31st March 2011 by Martin Cassini
Below is a link to some early 20th-century footage shot from a tram progressing along a US city street teeming with people on foot, horse-drawn carts, motor vehicles, trams – all human life is here, in all its beautiful, harmonious chaos. Not a yellow line, parking meter, speed limit, speed camera or traffic light in sight, yet everyone merges in a merry mix (illustrating beautifully what Equality Streets, FiT Roads and shared space are all about). It may not seem wholly relevant to today’s car-dominated cities – but isn’t it urban maldesign which has allowed vehicles to dominate at the expense of other street life (which the likes of Ben Hamilton-Baillie and East Cheshire Council are seeking to remedy)? The footage shows how different road-users can co-exist in harmony given equal rights, and given responsibility for choosing gentle speeds in perfect accord with the social context. (Shame about the music track, but feast your eyes on the pictures. It lasts about 8 minutes, but is worth viewing to the delightful end.) Thanks to Chad Dornsife for sending it. Clip here.

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Today and Ed – joint shame?

Posted on 31st March 2011 by Martin Cassini
The Today Programme’s big interview this morning was Ed Miliband. So now we know what Labour would do about the deficit. Or do we? All I gleaned was that Ed would spread cuts over four years, “and go out and ask the people what they think”. Brilliant! Evan Davis hopped about like a goblin (do Today presenters get bonuses for interruptions?), accusing Ed of a willingness to fall behind on deficit targets by £40bn a year, and claiming that therefore there is no alternative to painful spending cuts. A dozen times over the last two years, I have emailed Today editors telling them that in traffic system reform there is scope for beneficial cuts of tens of billions a year. I’ve written about it in Economic Affairs, and here (politically I’m unaffiliated by the way). In researching an updated piece for a Sunday paper, I’ve had annual savings of £40bn certified by an accountant as a realistic figure for kind cuts from traffic system reform, assuming you agree that equality is a better basis for road-user interaction than priority (with its expensive network of defensive-aggressive and ultimately futile controls). The figures are broad brush, because the cost of traffic management and control, as a DfT spokesman told me, “is as long as a piece of string”, and, as a senior traffic economist and engineer warned, the field is virtually impossible to unravel. But the point is that the mainstay of independent, investigative journalism, the BBC, is swallowing ill-informed government PR and neglecting outside voices bringing insights of major import.
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Verdict in bus driver case

Posted on 30th March 2011 by Martin Cassini
Blackfriars Crown Court is near me, so in the hope of a word with the defence, I cycled over, thinking the bus driver was as much a victim as the poor dead cyclist. The catastrophic event will haunt the driver all her life. But the case was over. Verdict: Not Guilty. So why did the CPS bring the case? Chambers gave me the solicitor’s number, but the person I needed was not at her desk. Ditto the CPS press officer given me by the Court. So I await replies to two voicemails. Will post an update when I have one.
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Another cyclist killed at traffic lights

Posted on 30th March 2011 by Martin Cassini

A 22-year-old student, Dorothy Elder, met a terrible end on 11 November 2009 at the junction of Southampton Row and Holborn. Bus driver, Leola Burte, is facing a charge of dangerous driving. The bus was stationary at red when Dorothy cycled up the inside. As the lights changed and they moved off, Dorothy was dragged under the bus. Speed wasn’t a factor. The prosecution alleges the driver was incompetent for failing to see the cyclist and take appropriate action. My comment? When will we see representatives of the traffic control system in the dock? Never is the finger pointed at the information overload assailing a driver, especially at such a busy and visually confusing junction. If lights weren’t demanding attention and taking eyes off the road, and if, instead, road-users were able to filter sociably in turn, it’s highly likely that the driver’s brain would have been fully focused on fellow road-users and the needs of the moment. The role of traffic controls in messing with our minds and causing “accidents” has never been studied. Who will fund a study? How many other road-users must die on the altar of this violent, priority-based, blame-is-the-name-of-the-game traffic control system?

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Rules of the road overrule duty of care

Posted on 27th March 2011 by Martin Cassini
Portsmouth wants the DfT to approve amber-flashing lights at night. As a student in Munich 40-odd years ago, I admired amber-flashing lights outside peak times. But now I ask, why do we need signals to tell us to exercise caution when we are genetically programmed to be careful (unless licensed by unequal rights and traffic lights to be careless)?  

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