Category Archives: Uncategorized

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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International farce

In Belgium last week, a driver honked at me as I crossed on a zebra. Why? Because junctions there, in France too, often have traffic lights and zebras, delivering absurdly contradictory messages. I was already virtually across, having seen him stop … Continue reading →

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Is it OK to cross a red light?

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 … Continue reading →

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Bad air day

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 … Continue reading →

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Roads minister on speed (as it were)

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 … Continue reading →

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Government lies

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 … Continue reading →

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True care and attention

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 … Continue reading →

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