If you were the Transport Secretary.....

[Evoluzione]

What new measures or laws would you bring in to make the roads better for us all?

Here's mine:

Objective:
We need less people on the roads, the people on the roads need to be better drivers.

Method:
If anyone causes an accident or is caught breaking the speed limit by a large amount then they have their licence taken from them almost immediately.
Any accident, full stop, no messing, decision taken on the spot by the Police.

Result:
Less people on the road and the ones who are on there would be much better off in many ways

In order to get their licence back they have to take a very thorough advanced driving course and pass the test at the end.

It would also create jobs - and for a worthy cause too.

Draconian? Probably, but I'm tired of sharing our roads with people who can't drive properly and lets face it, if you caused an accident you were doing something you shouldn't have and really, the chance of bettering yourself to be let back on the roads can't be a bad thing.
Personally if I were put through this imaginary scheme I wouldn't feel the animosity that I would for crimes such as getting flashed by a camera at 66mph in a 60 zone on an empty road at 2am etc, etc....

[billzeebub]

Day One- Rip out all Speed Humps and Speed Scameras overnight.

Day 2- Foreign Aid budget (amongst other things such as Payments for having copious amounts of offspring etc) to be re-assigned solely to funding for Police Traffic Officers (to patrol for dangerous, illegal and just plain muppet drivers, also catching lots of other scummers going about their daily criminality) who can distinguish between quick, safe progress and dangerous/careless driving.

Day 3- Persuade Jeremy Clarkson that Golf is a fun and stimulating passtime, then pub for a few jars

[petrolsniffer]

billzeebub said:

Day One- Rip out all Speed Humps and Speed Scameras overnight.

Day 2- Foreign Aid budget (amongst other things such as Payments for having copious amounts of offspring etc) to be re-assigned solely to funding for Police Traffic Officers (to patrol for dangerous, illegal and just plain muppet drivers, also catching lots of other scummers going about their daily criminality) who can distinguish between quick, safe progress and dangerous/careless driving.

Day 3- Persuade Jeremy Clarkson that Golf is a fun and stimulating passtime, then pub for a few jars

Agree with all of this apart from day three as I hate golf.

Hardly ever see traffic police out and about even in unmarked cars which I usually spot.

[Dixy]

Re test all every 5 years.

[KingNothing]

I think the last thing we need is giving the police an ego boost and giving them more draconian powers that go unregulated and monitored, they've already got section 59 to play with in that instance.

[AJI]

I would demand that the money raised from the motorist through all the motoring related taxations, fines etc. MUST be spent on the UK road infrastructure and not placed in to the big gubberment spending pot so that it may be sent to India to aid their nuclear weapons programs.

The problem is not the numbers of traffic, it is more that the UK is not upgrading the infrastructure. Some individual areas may have seen improvements, but nationwide as a significant infrastructure upgrade? I think not.
Congested areas in other parts of the world see elevated motorways, ie. 'double decker' roads so to speak. The M25 with its amount of traffic should have adopted this years ago.
More city areas should have adopted this years ago.

If we dont have the space to expand laterally then there is plenty of space vertically.

Edited by AJI on Thursday 28th March 10:30

[djfaulkner]

Improve the Railway, make the trains more reliable - maybe even cheaper.
Rather than charging more for longer journeys, offer them a discount.

In theory - The more people on trains, the less number of people on the roads.

Publish a financial breakdown of what has been spent and the income.

[mrslowly]

1 - Remove all "traffic cameras", whether they be speed, red light etc. and replace with more coppers in marked cars.
2 - Impose minimum speed limit of 60mph on motorways for cars able to reach and maintain 60mph easily and safely to prevent old duffers in pork pie hats causing HGV's to slow traffic down by moving to middle lane.
3 - Tougher penalties for tailgating, middle lane hogging etc.

[Ali Chappussy]

mrslowly said:

1 - Remove all "traffic cameras", whether they be speed, red light etc. and replace with more coppers in marked cars.
2 - Impose minimum speed limit of 60mph on motorways for cars able to reach and maintain 60mph easily and safely to prevent old duffers in pork pie hats causing HGV's to slow traffic down by moving to middle lane.
3 - Tougher penalties for tailgating, middle lane hogging etc.

Agree with all of these, especially number 3. Middle lane hoggers really grip my st!!

Edited by Ali Chappussy on Thursday 28th March 10:20

[Negative Creep]

Ali Chappussy said:

mrslowly said:

1 - Remove all "traffic cameras", whether they be speed, red light etc. and replace with more coppers in marked cars.
2 - Impose minimum speed limit of 60mph on motorways for cars able to reach and maintain 60mph easily and safely to prevent old duffers in pork pie hats causing HGV's to slow traffic down by moving to middle lane.
3 - Tougher penalties for tailgating, middle lane hogging etc.

Agree with all of these, especially number 3. Middle lane really grip my st!!

Another vote from me, but I would add:

4 - driving with only front fog and sidelights on in good weather is punishable by a good old fashioned shoeing at the roadside

[Petrolhead_Rich]

Rip up all speed bumps, humps etc, use the rubble to fill pot holes

Result: pot holes fixed cheaply, traffic flow increased, suspension damage minimised reducing cost to motorist and accidents caused by suspension failure

Scrap ALL bus lanes, if you cant afford a car, then fine, use the bus, but don't expect to get there any faster

Result: greater capacity in town & city centres, greater redundancy for accidents, road works etc

BAN ALL ROADWORKS THAT EXCEED 1 MILE

Result: less cones required so good for the environment, reduced congestion and emmisions, better traffic flow, happier motorist, less accidents in queues

Raise motorway speed limit to 80, average speed cameras on all motorways (one per junction)

result: better traffic flow, completely stop speeding

Minimum speed limits on motorways and dual carriageways varied by lane (50, 60, 70) enforced by average speed cameras mentioned above!

Result: minimise congestion on motorways.

Remove speed cameras in any NSL stretch of road, put them outside ALL schools

Result: Instantly stop all speeding past schools, reduce cost of vandalism to speed cameras in remote areas



anyone found reversing down a motorway is banned for life from driving

result: less collisions, dangerous drivers banned

Driving without insurance fine is calculated as ((average of lowest three premiums) + £1000 + 6 points)

Result: massive drop in insurance claims

Retake of test after 1 year, then every 5 years thereafter

Result: improve driving standards

Motorway driving included in driving test with emphasis on merging at speed, maintaining lane discipline, maintaining speed, etc

Result: less congestion from middle laners and people joining too slowly, less accidents

TEN YEAR BAN for ANY drink/drug driver.

Result: less drink drivers

6 months in prison for anyone driving while disqualified

New drivers to be supervised at night for their first year (can drive unaccompanied during daylight hours)

Result: reduce "crusing" and crashes at night involving new and young drivers

Lighting offences (foglights, sidelights in the dark, no headlights etc) punishable by 3 points and £60

Result: minimise collisions where someone wasn't seen

24hour notice to rectify defective lights, £60 and three points for failing to rectify within 24 hours

Result: As above

Edited by Petrolhead_Rich on Thursday 28th March 10:25

[otolith]

I would lobby the treasury to make big tax breaks available to individuals who work from home and companies which facilitate them to do so.

I would rubber stamp the raised motorway speed limit proposal.

I would abolish VED and make up the difference on fuel duty.

I would arrange for a complete review of new driver training and testing.

I would build more out of town railway stations off motorway junctions with lots of parking - making people drive into one congested town centre so that they can avoid driving into another congested town centre is stupid.

I would look at how to address the unnecessary downgrading of NSL roads by local authorities.

I would make inefficient use of current motorway capacity by poor lane discipline a priority to be addressed by education, policing and roadside beatings.

I would look to improve the cycle network - including providing some new cycle routes good enough for adult cyclists to ride at speed on them as well as engineering roads to be safer to cycle on.

[oyster]

mrslowly said:

1 - Remove all "traffic cameras", whether they be speed, red light etc. and replace with more coppers in marked cars.
2 - Impose minimum speed limit of 60mph on motorways for cars able to reach and maintain 60mph easily and safely to prevent old duffers in pork pie hats causing HGV's to slow traffic down by moving to middle lane.
3 - Tougher penalties for tailgating, middle lane hogging etc.

Why would you remove red-light cameras? What possible justification could you have for that?

[mrslowly]

Negative Creep said:

Another vote from me, but I would add:

4 - driving with only front fog and sidelights on in good weather is punishable by a good old fashioned shoeing at the roadside

Ahh yes, this has become more prominent over the past 12 - 18 months, which I think is due to many manufacturers putting the compulsury DRL's within the fog light cluster, and so people now seem to think that it is ok to do that.

[mrslowly]

oyster said:

Why would you remove red-light cameras? What possible justification could you have for that?

Infact I would go a stage further than removing the cameras, I would remove many traffic lights themselves. Many of them are unnecessary and cause congestion.

[Grenoble]

mrslowly said:

Infact I would go a stage further than removing the cameras, I would remove many traffic lights themselves. Many of them are unnecessary and cause congestion.

Good luck getting out of some side roads without them.

[MysteryLemon]

With the OPs original comment. I don't think that's such a bad idea.

I wouldn't go to the point of banning anyone that crashes from driving though, although there probably should be some punishment causing a crash. If you speed, you get points or a speed awareness course these days. How about sending people who cause a crash on an awareness course or whatever, or maybe have them assessed by an instructor who can give them advice etc. Might help to open their eyes and see that their driving isn't perfect, like the speed awareness courses do.

[RobM77]

Simple: Re-testing every five years, or at the very least an assessment with an observer. Almost every dangerous moment I witness from day to day on the roads whether I'm driving, cycling or walking, would be avoided by just following the basic highway code. I reckon less than 1% of drivers would pass their basic driving test tomorrow if they took it without any additional training. The reduction in accidents and deaths would be utterly huge.

Once the re-testing is in place, and only once it is, then after three years (so everyone's been recently re-tested) I would bring in other measures such as:

• A reduction in the drink drive alcohol limit
• Motorway speed limits up to 80mph
• Remove speed bumps, perhaps replacing with cameras if speed is genuinely an issue (to be proved with evidence, not hearsay).
• Removal of road tax and put it on fuel to make motorists pay per mile not per car (note this would still penalise high emissions cars so the greens would be happy, it's an obvious thing to do).
• Short adverts on television telling drivers about: mirror, signal, manouvre; lane discipline; driving to the conditions (rain, snow etc); and awareness of motorbikes and bicycles.
• A review of all existing speed limits, resulting in the removal of ridiculous 40 limits on B and A roads where residents without access to any accident statistics or proper data have petitioned to have them put in.
• Improved barriers down the middle of some roads reducing head on accidents.
• Replacement of lampposts and signposts with accident friendly folding ones.
• A purge on unecessary road signs
• Road signs in London showing you which lane to be in for all junctions. Currently, it's written on the road, which with modern traffic levels is pointless.
• Incentives for drivers to seek further training.
• Improval of the basic driving test to include: driving at night, motorway driving, a bicycle/moped riding session and basic car control control.
• better road surfacing and maintenance. Some pot-holes around me are quite literally lethal for bikers and cyclists if they should hit them.
• An increase in part time traffic lights that don't function out of peak hours.
• Traffic light sensors put further back from the traffic lights so late at night cars don't have to slow to an almost stop before the lights go green.

[mrslowly]

Grenoble said:

Good luck getting out of some side roads without them.

I did not say remove all traffic lights.

[Dr Jekyll]

Replace 'Speed kills' with 'Excessive speed kills' or even better 'Impatience kills' or 'Aggression kills'.