Tag Archives: priority

When is a pedestrian a “dumb-ass prick”?

The other day, on foot, I asserted my right-of way at a junction. A van driver sped up and braked, ready to turn left, looking away from me, to his right, for approaching traffic. So he could have hit me … Continue reading

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Mugged by ministerial apathy and negligence

The woman below, a talented musician, was crossing the road with her child outside her home, when she was hit by a car. She managed to push the child to safety. She needed 21 stitches in her head. Would this … Continue reading

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State-sponsored neglect

Last week I saw a woman with two toddlers trying to cross Portland Road at the east end of Ilfracombe High St. For a full two minutes, a stream of drivers ignored them, including a district councillor I know but … Continue reading

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Merchant bankers?

Are they all merchants!? Instead of making roads intrinsically safe – by replacing priority with equality – traffic authorities spend fortunes on retrospective “solutions” which are not solutions at all. Instead of integrating all modes in a mutually-tolerant mix, they … Continue reading

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Sex and traffic

A study reported in The Observer measures the erotic quotient of different parts of the body. The bit that relates to relationships on the road is this from Prof Oliver Turnbull of Bangor Uni, who led the study: “… we … Continue reading

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If

If I’m right: that the edifice of traffic control, based as it is on anti-social priority, is flawed and misguided; and that self-control on streets designed for equality are safer and more efficient than streets governed by priority and signals, … Continue reading

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Stating the obvious

You’ll be pleased to hear the Department for Transport has published a new Research report, Operation of Traffic Signals during Low Demand (4 Oct 2012). I’ll quote and comment as we go along. “Traffic signal design is a science that … Continue reading

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Priority = inequality

In the past I’ve written that if the law is an ass, nowhere is it more asinine than in the traffic arena. But is it the law, or traffic managers’ interpretation of the law? There is no legal requirement, i.e. … Continue reading

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Harry Potter on common law

In The Strange Case of the Law (BBC2), criminal defence barrister, Harry Potter (who keeps his wig in a Quality Street tin), says that English common law was “this country’s greatest gift to the world”.  Our traffic control system looked that … Continue reading

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Designing for danger

Traffic officers run a system that’s intrinsically dangerous, then devise expensive controls to mitigate the danger. But inevitably they fail, because all they are doing is treating the symptoms of the problem they created in the first place. If they dealt with … Continue reading

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