Monthly Archives: November 2011

Kilkenny and traffic lights

This week, at the invitation of a business group, I was in Kilkenny, Ireland, taking stock and sharing my views about traffic (see this in The Irish Times). Kilkenny is a lovely place, made unlovely by traffic queuing at unnecessary … Continue reading

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Historic connections

On Stephen Fry’s Radio 4 series about the history of mobile phones, a designer of HTC smartphones said he aimed to create devices that were “so simple that using them was almost innate”. It reminded me that traffic regulation seems bent … Continue reading

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Fuel prices

A few decades ago, when income tax hit 98%, most high earners went into tax exile. Now the top rate of tax is a reasonable 50%, although it’s due to drop to 40% (also reasonable) as soon as the government … Continue reading

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Death of another cyclist

Is this another case of corporate manslaughter? God save us from the “experts”, especially experts in road design.

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Exhaust deaths

The Commons Environment Committee has confirmed something we already knew: that annually there are 4,000 premature deaths in London attributable to poor air quality caused largely by traffic. Nationwide, the figure is 30,000. Also quoted on The Today Programme was the … Continue reading

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M5 crash

Deep condolences to the people affected, but calls for the 70 limit to remain are irrelevant. Instead of driving by numbers, we should drive according to context. Some accidents are genuinely unavoidable – and the more we learn about this one, the more it sounds … Continue reading

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