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 traffic lights. At a couple of presentations, objectors asked how I would cater for disabled people. The clue is in the name. Equality Streets = inclusivity. The realistic aim is to make roads a cradle of safety for all road-users. Without lights distracting them, drivers will be sensitive to the needs of others. A new hierarchy will emerge with vulnerable road-users at the top. Fears and objections stem from a lifetime of slavery to rules of the road which are anti-social and divisive. Free from that oppression, the potential for co-operation in human nature will be unleashed.
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Martin Cassini on 20mph again
- francisgoode on Worst peacetime disaster
- francisgoode on Deference be damned
- RichardX on 20mph again
- Martin Cassini on Speed
Meta
Blogroll
Although I live in Dublin, I know Kilkenny very well. I’m afraid Kilkenny is not alone. Come to Dublin and I’ll personally show numerous unnecessary TL’s. One newly built road has 6 sets of lights in a 1.6 Km stretch.
Certainly Kilkenny is not alone. Most towns are dehumanised and degraded by traffic regulation which is based on the unsafe, unethical, inefficient system of priority. Traffic lights are merely the most visible (and risible) symbols of a control system that treats the man-made symptoms of our problems on the road, never the cause.