Category Archives: Uncategorized

Highway toad

Walking home this afternoon, I was crossing an angled junction, aware that a car had arrived behind me to turn in. I didn’t look up because, according to the Highway Code, pedestrians have right-of-way at junctions. Also I was already crossing, so … Continue reading

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Traffic lights off at night?

The Bristol Evening Post asked for my views about switching off traffic lights at night to save energy. Article here. The full text of my reply was: In a sense, any advance on the current system of mandatory traffic lights is better … Continue reading

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The folly of traffic control

On Radio 4’s A Point of View, John Gray discussed Barbara Tuchman who defined folly as pursuit of policy which is demonstrably counterproductive. Quoting from the BBC article: a policy can be identified as folly if it meets three tests. It … Continue reading

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The IAAF, FIFA, and traffic policy

The IAAF’s one-false-start-and-you’re-disqualified rule is the latest example of joy-killing by regulation-obsessed bureaucrats. The starting gun in athletics should fire at zero in a 5-second countdown. The current system is unpredictable, which prompts false starts. To solve the problem they … Continue reading

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What goes around …

Is it far-fetched to suggest that social discontent is prompted by public policy which treats us like morons (most traffic control) or cash cows (fuel duty, parking controls, speed cameras, 0844 phone numbers, etc)? Such public policy failures widen the gap … Continue reading

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Naughtie but too nice?

In the news today: cuts in government subsidies to local bus services, i.e. a kick in the teeth for the people, against a backdrop of abysmal existing provision, punitive parking controls in towns, and government obsession with a £60bn hi-speed … Continue reading

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Is street design enough?

Ben Hamilton-Baillie, street designer and proponent of shared space (he penned the phrase), thinks streetscape redesign is enough on its own, and that streets are designed to express a social context, road-users will instinctively start behaving sociably. I accept that to a degree, … Continue reading

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Good and bad cuts

It’s reported that NHS managers are delaying surgery in the hope that patients will die first or go private. The justification is that the NHS has to find £20bn in spending cuts by 2015. Meanwhile, there is scope in traffic … Continue reading

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J’accuse (again)

Is collective grief worse than individual grief? The attacks in Norway are shocking, but the shock and grief are shared. Meanwhile, on UK roads, 30,000 are killed and injured every year, condemning families and friends to enduring loss and pain. The unremitting, … Continue reading

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Traffic control – a failure

If I know one thing, it’s that human nature is simiar the world over. Those who claim that live-and-let-live on the roads will only work in “courteous” countries know nothing. In France and Belgium where I spent time recently, the … Continue reading

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