Equality Streets

There is too much fear on the road – a sort of generalised stranger danger. As fellow humans, drivers don’t want to bully pedestrians, but the rules of road tell them to ditch their manners in obedience to a system of control which takes absolute precedence. We are cowed into submission by rules which make us cow others into submission. The scenario I’m picturing: waiting to cross the road as a pedestrian and being ignored by streams of traffic (Grotesque); and as a driver, wanting to give way to side road traffic or peds, but being prevented from doing so by closely-following traffic.

Priority based on status of road is discriminatory. It supports inequality. By contrast, filter in turn (FiT) – based on time of arrival – expresses equal status, equal rights, equal responsibility, equal opportunity. The dysfunctional rules of the road defy civilised values. They have an unseen hand in countless “accidents”, yet they are supported by the law of the land.

Roads unfit for People (updated Case against Traffic Lights 7min 33)

Roads FiT for People (traffic lights-off trial in Portishead 5min 07)

My existing blog is at Free to Choose. The subject is traffic system reform based on equality rather than priority – the sociable way to make Roads FiT for People.