My letter in Autocar
Discussion
Autocar published my letter this week. I've never been any good at being concise, but fortunately they have subs for that. The original was quite a bit longer so I thought I'd post it here.
Dear Sir,
Someone needs to bang some heads together. We are living in a war zone between road safety organisations and people are getting killed.
On one side we have Brake and Transport 2000, and on the other side we have The Association of British Drivers and Safespeed. All claiming the moral high ground and to be doing what is best for the travelling public (which is everyone).
The debate centres on speed. Is 70mph too fast on a motorway? Is it unnecessarily enforced? Is driving too fast akin to aggravated rape or a little less naughty than forgetting to take a library book back on time?
But if you ignore the speeding issue there is a huge amount of common ground between the two sides. They both want safer roads, better driver training, clearer signposts, harsher penalties for things like unsafe cars, unlicenced and uninsured drivers. Both sides rightly castigate drink-driving. Neither would claim that the seatbelt or crash helmet laws are anything but sensible. Indeed leaving the one issue of speed aside you can sit on either side of the fence and read the material from the other side, and if it wasn’t for the hatred and pent up emotions, nod sagely.
So – and this might sound like sorting out the Palestinian problem, or getting the Good Friday agreement to work – how about a ceasefire? No more Gatsos, but similarly none removed (by fair means or foul). Let’s leave the limits and the interpretations of the limits where they are and move on. The taxation of motoring – be it on petrol, parking fines or congestion charging – need not be reduced or increased and let’s worry about the things which everyone agrees upon. Let’s have the better road safety instruction in schools. Teach people to drive, cycle and cross the road safely. Tighten up the driving tests and have regular re-testing. Driving isn’t a god-given right it’s control of a tonne of steel, glass and plastic. Make people earn the right to drive and don’t then persecute them for doing so. People will still speed and they will still get Gatsoed, but on the whole the roads will get safer and lives will be saved.
Dear Sir,
Someone needs to bang some heads together. We are living in a war zone between road safety organisations and people are getting killed.
On one side we have Brake and Transport 2000, and on the other side we have The Association of British Drivers and Safespeed. All claiming the moral high ground and to be doing what is best for the travelling public (which is everyone).
The debate centres on speed. Is 70mph too fast on a motorway? Is it unnecessarily enforced? Is driving too fast akin to aggravated rape or a little less naughty than forgetting to take a library book back on time?
But if you ignore the speeding issue there is a huge amount of common ground between the two sides. They both want safer roads, better driver training, clearer signposts, harsher penalties for things like unsafe cars, unlicenced and uninsured drivers. Both sides rightly castigate drink-driving. Neither would claim that the seatbelt or crash helmet laws are anything but sensible. Indeed leaving the one issue of speed aside you can sit on either side of the fence and read the material from the other side, and if it wasn’t for the hatred and pent up emotions, nod sagely.
So – and this might sound like sorting out the Palestinian problem, or getting the Good Friday agreement to work – how about a ceasefire? No more Gatsos, but similarly none removed (by fair means or foul). Let’s leave the limits and the interpretations of the limits where they are and move on. The taxation of motoring – be it on petrol, parking fines or congestion charging – need not be reduced or increased and let’s worry about the things which everyone agrees upon. Let’s have the better road safety instruction in schools. Teach people to drive, cycle and cross the road safely. Tighten up the driving tests and have regular re-testing. Driving isn’t a god-given right it’s control of a tonne of steel, glass and plastic. Make people earn the right to drive and don’t then persecute them for doing so. People will still speed and they will still get Gatsoed, but on the whole the roads will get safer and lives will be saved.
Do you think such a ceasefire/compromise is in everyone's best interests? While there are x thousand Gatsos surely the advantage is with "them" rather than "us" even if no more are installed?
I agree it would be good to have a more reasoned debate but I feel the unreason is coming from T2k and scumera partnerships not Paul Smith. Or perhaps I'm missing the point. You're right that driver training is a key to reducing KSIs, and I would add once more that the correct attitude should be an essential prerequisite to being allowed to take a driving test.
I agree it would be good to have a more reasoned debate but I feel the unreason is coming from T2k and scumera partnerships not Paul Smith. Or perhaps I'm missing the point. You're right that driver training is a key to reducing KSIs, and I would add once more that the correct attitude should be an essential prerequisite to being allowed to take a driving test.
Peter Ward said:
Do you think such a ceasefire/compromise is in everyone's best interests? While there are x thousand Gatsos surely the advantage is with "them" rather than "us" even if no more are installed?
I agree it would be good to have a more reasoned debate but I feel the unreason is coming from T2k and scumera partnerships not Paul Smith. Or perhaps I'm missing the point. You're right that driver training is a key to reducing KSIs, and I would add once more that the correct attitude should be an essential prerequisite to being allowed to take a driving test.
Unless one can feel happy with the status quo, I'm not sure I go for the idea of a cease fire.
As for the question of attitude, I agree that is a very important aspect, but who is to decide what is the right attitude? I'm quite sure officialdom, and indeed a lot of other people, would be highly dissatisfied with my attitude.
Best wishes all,
Dave.
simonrockman said:
I agree that it's with Them, but I can only see an escalation.
Perhaps an escalation is what is needed and maybe that will happen. Quite honestly I would favour that, as I do not think we are making sensible progress towards finding the right answer at present.
My (perhaps minority) view is that what we are getting is increased curtailment of our freedom without it yielding sufficient benefit to make it justifiable.
Best wishes all,
Dave.
TripleS said:
I agree that it's with Them, but I can only see an escalation.
Perhaps an escalation is what is needed and maybe that will happen. Quite honestly I would favour that, as I do not think we are making sensible progress towards finding the right answer at present.
My (perhaps minority) view is that what we are getting is increased curtailment of our freedom without it yielding sufficient benefit to make it justifiable.
Best wishes all,
Dave.
I agree, I have just been subjected to that propaganda ad about speed cameras in place of a load of flowers on a roadside. This is pure propaganda and should be treated with the contempt it deserves, but I fear most of us on here are the minority, like the Germans in the 30s being bombarded with propaganda about Jews being no better than rats (although, admittidly, on a whole different plain of distaste), it worked, the majority of the German population went along with it, even snitching on friends and neighbours, the same thing is now happening in this country, this time its the motorist, and its aimed soley for extra tax; the propaganda acting as a tool to soften us up and not question why we're subjected to fines and eventual bans, sickening, but nothing ever changes!
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