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March 24, 2004
Traffic calming - road rage generating
This morning I briefly watched another piece of typical nannying being discussed on the TV news. Two representatives were on GMTV to discuss the fact that one town council has had the good sense to dig up its infernal speed bumps after being sued for damage to cars and causing serious delays to emergency vehicles - and concluding that these infernal devices so beloved of the morons of the Road Safety Association don't work anyway and are more of a hazard than a help.
The RSA rep managed to irritate everybody by her typically condescending attitude and her constant attempts to smear the other participants as "irresponsible" drivers. When will these cretins grasp the fact that the problem is not so much that motorists are travelling too fast, but that the pedestrians are too illdisciplined to be responsible. Children are taught they have the right of way in everything. Tell a modern child not to do something and they will immediately attempt to do it - on the basis that an adult is simply trying to restrict their "freedom".
A lot of children are injured on the roads. But why always blame the motorist? There is not much you can do at even the ludicrously low 20 mph speed limit these idiots want to impose to avoid a child who rushes straight out between parked vehicles into the roadway. Why are the parents not controlling them? Why are they not taught, as I was, that the road is for cars - not morons with a death wish!
This extends to cyclists, as well. From a very early age I cycled to and from school - over eight miles each way. In the nearly ten years I cycled that route, I was only once brushed by a car - fortunately escaping serious injury - and that was largely my own fault - I swerved out without checking behind me! As a kid, I was taught never to cycle abreast of another cyclist, and the traffic police would not hesitate to pull you over if you did. Here, I find myself stuck behind groups of cyclists who cycle three and four abreast completely obstructing traffic.
To add insult to injury, the County Council has now taken out of use a stretch of the A 38 which used to be dual carriage way over its busiest section - to turn one complete lane on each side into cycle paths. No doubt the 20 or so cyclists a day will enjoy this - but the motorists are paying for it!
Why focus on the motorist as the demon when the failure lies in the Road Safety Association and the various Child Protection societies that have taken it upon themselves to destroy parents' control over wayward and headstrong children, allowing them to run wild. This links into another report from today's news - that over a hundred "children" a month are "kicked out" by their parents and end up living rough on the streets. When you look at the reasons why, many are so out of control that the parents have no option. Yes, I accept that there are some bad parents out there who abuse and damage their offspring. Identify them and deal with them - don't criminalise and hamstring perfectly normal and loving parents so that they are unable to bring their children up to be responsible and decent citizens. Children have to be taught to behave decently and some need a bit more reminding than others.
To return to my original point, traffic calming measures such as speed humps are simply the response of a bunch of wet behind the ears do-gooders who cannot think in joined up ways to see a bigger picture. These are the same iodiots who constantly bleat about pollution and exhaust fumes. They simply refuse to see that the slower traffic moves, the more exhaust fumes you get. Modern engines have been engineered to be at their cleanest burning and most efficient at a speed well above 35 mph - my own car's gearing is too high to use 5th gear at 30 mph - and is therefore wasting fuel and dumping exhaust waste into the roadside air. Slow it down even further and it gets worse.
One police force started recording the number of accidents involving speed calming measures in its area and was told to stop when it started to show up the fact that more accidents were happening at these points - rather demolishing the view that they were reducing accidents. They were ordered to stop as soon as this became apparent. Never let facts get in the way of ideology.
Teach the children and other road users to behave responsibly on the roads. This will be far more effective in reducing accidents than alienating and angering the motorist - who, after all, pays for all of this nonsense in ever increasing Road Tax and in exorbitant fuel taxes.
The GMTV telephone poll on this issue showed that 79% felt the "traffic calming" measures should be removed everywhere, only 8% felt they should stay.
Any Councillors, politicians, or road unsafety campaigners out there listening?
Posted by The Gray Monk at March 24, 2004 11:49 AM