Is it OK to cross a red light?

Posted on 23rd June 2011 by Martin Cassini

In the US, the “crime” of crossing on red is called “red light running”; in the UK, it’s “red light jumping” (RLJ). But surely it’s only dangerous if you cross at speed, in neglect of other road-users. Instead of waiting and polluting pointlessly, shouldn’t we be encouraged to proceed on opportunity? Should road-users who use their inner lights instead of obeying crass regulation be praised rather than penalised? If people acted en masse, we could see a peaceful revolution against the tyranny of traffic regulation.

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Bad air day

Posted on 23rd June 2011 by Martin Cassini

If 4000 premature deaths a year are due to air pollution from traffic, which is indeed the case, then traffic officials and governments should be accounable for measures that damage air quality. Sitting outside a cafe in Paris as I write this, I’m forced to breathe air that is more heavily polluted because of lights that stop traffic unnecessarily, prevent it from filtering on opportunity, and encourage frustrated drivers to accelerate away, boosting air pollution with an added helping of noise pollution. No-one’s a winner on over-regulated roads, and it’s no better in Paris than in London. Traffic officials and policymakers the world over should face trial for the evil they bring at public cost and public expense.

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Roads minister on speed (as it were)

Posted on 13th June 2011 by Martin Cassini

Until the last paragraph, this sounded reasonable … People shouldn’t need speed limits to “tell them what speed to drive at”! Too often the limit is a target, and even 20 in an urban setting, especially with children around, can be lethal. Drivers should be able to use commonsense to judge appropriate speed based on circumstances and context.

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Government lies

Posted on 10th June 2011 by Martin Cassini

A prominent news story yesterday was the prospect of stiff fines for Britain’s failure to meet emissions reduction targets, particularly nitrogen dioxide which causes 4000 premature deaths a year. The main source of NO2 is traffic. Radio 4 News quoted the government as saying, “We’re doing all we can”. I have over a dozen unanswered emails to ministers about the potential for carbon cuts from traffic system reform. Do they respond? Do they act? Do pigs fly? Professor of environmental pollution at Imperial College, Nigel Bell, says restrictions on traffic may be the only way to meet targets, “but politically that’s unacceptable, though Ken Livingstone might do something”. What, blight streetscapes with 1800 more traffic lights with their embedded energy, negative impact on traffic flow and emissions? Bell would impose high congestion charges too. It’s not just politicians who are rich in ignorance and poor in imagination.

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True care and attention

Posted on 8th June 2011 by Martin Cassini

Traffic managers assume we are incapable of negotiating safe movement under our own steam, so they herd us like sheep. They brainwash us into believing that we could not live, indeed we would die, without their system of control. The law criminalises us for not obeying it to the letter, or for using our own judgement. They tell us to exercise  caution when traffic lights are out of action, suggesting that when they are “working”, we don’t need to exercise caution; all we need do is act like robots in obedience to signals. That might be driving with due care and attention, but it’s a million miles from driving with true care and attention.

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More misappliance of science

Posted on 7th June 2011 by Martin Cassini

In the summer you expect jams on the A303 because of man-made bottlenecks, i.e. dual-carriageways funneling into single. But nearing the end of a mega jam the other day, I saw it was due to something else: traffic lights at a roundabout. The principal A303 was getting just 12 seconds of green time, while the A345 (with much lighter traffic) was getting 35 secs! They pap you and zap you for straying over the limit when the road is clear, but when you’re bumper to bumper for forty minutes because of misapplied control, do they say sorry?

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Speed rap

Posted on 1st June 2011 by Martin Cassini

They say that any publicity is good publicity. I’m not so sure. Anyway, it’s out there, so it might as well be on here. One news story here, another here.

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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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