Category Archives: Uncategorized

In TfL’s annual report, Boris Johnson and Peter Hendy trumpet efficiency savings of £5bn. Can we infer that over the years, they have been overspending by £5bn? In view of the high-cost traffic controls they cherish, from congestion charging to pedestrian countdown, the … Continue reading →

If, instead of rule by priority (a traffic engineering model), we lived by values of equality (a social model), then the parts of the current system that clash – above all safety and efficiency – would mesh. Like shuffling cards, … Continue reading →

On our way to Sunday lunch on 1 August, I was crossing Fore Street, Ilfracombe, by the acute-angled junction with the High Street. Suddenly, a Vauxhall Corsa appeared from around the blind corner, and stopped to let me go. My … Continue reading →

“It is only the heart that can see clearly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” – St Exupéry. Instructional road signs are constantly in your face. Empathy is invisible.  

The current London taxi looks naff and is in dire need of a makeover but after all these years someone has finally got round to producing a fuel cell version. Story here. When we’re all driving green cars, will we still … Continue reading →

We’re more tolerant and make better judgements if we’re in a frame of mind of relaxed alert rather than a state of stress. The Observer had a piece about Warwick Business School professor, Andrew Oswald, an expert on the relationship between economics and mental … Continue reading →

There is too much fear on the road – a sort of generalised stranger danger. As fellow humans, drivers don’t want to bully pedestrians, but the rules of road tell them to ditch their manners in obedience to a system … Continue reading →

Priority based on status of road is discriminatory. It supports inequality. By contrast, filter in turn (FiT) – based on time of arrival – expresses equal status, equal rights, equal responsibility, equal opportunity. The dysfunctional rules of the road defy … Continue reading →