Letter in Times needs responding to:
Discussion
This letter has been copied from Times Website - I'd post a link if they allowed me to find it out!!!
Delta or anyone else got time to inform this nitwit that deaths rose in Northampton 2001-2002?
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The effect of cameras on motorists
From Professor David Begg
Sir, The contrasting policies adopted by police forces in Durham and North Wales illustrate clearly the gap between delivering transport policies that are right from a policy point of view and those that are right from a political point of view.
Pushing forward a robust road safety agenda that really does save lives is not an easy business in the current climate, when speed cameras are often portrayed as “cash cows” and an attack on car drivers. Illegal speeding is one of the biggest contributors to road accidents. There is an easy way for drivers to avoid paying fines, and that is to stop speeding.
The Chief Constable of North Wales, Richard Brunstrom, should be commended for his resolve in implementing a comprehensive programme of speed cameras. The 13 per cent drop in people killed in one year on the roads in North Wales, compared to the 56 per cent rise in Durham, is surely proof enough.
Yours faithfully,
DAVID BEGG,
Chair,
Commission for Integrated Transport,
Romney House,
Marsham Street, SW1P 3HA.
September 3.
Delta or anyone else got time to inform this nitwit that deaths rose in Northampton 2001-2002?
--------------------------
The effect of cameras on motorists
From Professor David Begg
Sir, The contrasting policies adopted by police forces in Durham and North Wales illustrate clearly the gap between delivering transport policies that are right from a policy point of view and those that are right from a political point of view.
Pushing forward a robust road safety agenda that really does save lives is not an easy business in the current climate, when speed cameras are often portrayed as “cash cows” and an attack on car drivers. Illegal speeding is one of the biggest contributors to road accidents. There is an easy way for drivers to avoid paying fines, and that is to stop speeding.
The Chief Constable of North Wales, Richard Brunstrom, should be commended for his resolve in implementing a comprehensive programme of speed cameras. The 13 per cent drop in people killed in one year on the roads in North Wales, compared to the 56 per cent rise in Durham, is surely proof enough.
Yours faithfully,
DAVID BEGG,
Chair,
Commission for Integrated Transport,
Romney House,
Marsham Street, SW1P 3HA.
September 3.
Stuff it - angry enough to send one myself:
Dear Mr Begg,
I have read your letter in Today's Times, a copy is pasted below:
-------------------------------
quoted letter from Times
-------------------------------------
You have clearly chosen a blinkered and biased opinion to report to the public in the ongoing spin war that you are party to. Fair enough, figures fell in North Wales by 13%. Any lives that are saved is indeed wonderful news.
Everyday motorists would agree that there are two police forces in the UK which follow agendas of Stalinesque proportions. You have already made your views on North Wales public - however I would be far more interested to hear what you consider has happened in Northamptonshire.
To refresh your memory, and save you the trouble of looking up the data, I would like to remind you that deaths ROSE BY 35% in Northants.
It is clear from these statistics, and indeed from Idris Francis' retort to your idiocracy that cameras are incidental to the figures of deaths on the road. Cameras are only placed for one reason - to catch out motorists who do not know they are there and to raise revenue for partnerships and most importantly the treasury.
Would you kindly desist from hiding the truth from the public?
I look forward to your reply...
Regards,
Dear Mr Begg,
I have read your letter in Today's Times, a copy is pasted below:
-------------------------------
quoted letter from Times
-------------------------------------
You have clearly chosen a blinkered and biased opinion to report to the public in the ongoing spin war that you are party to. Fair enough, figures fell in North Wales by 13%. Any lives that are saved is indeed wonderful news.
Everyday motorists would agree that there are two police forces in the UK which follow agendas of Stalinesque proportions. You have already made your views on North Wales public - however I would be far more interested to hear what you consider has happened in Northamptonshire.
To refresh your memory, and save you the trouble of looking up the data, I would like to remind you that deaths ROSE BY 35% in Northants.
It is clear from these statistics, and indeed from Idris Francis' retort to your idiocracy that cameras are incidental to the figures of deaths on the road. Cameras are only placed for one reason - to catch out motorists who do not know they are there and to raise revenue for partnerships and most importantly the treasury.
Would you kindly desist from hiding the truth from the public?
I look forward to your reply...
Regards,
www.cfit.gov.uk/
nice pic of the muppet on the web page just incase you bumb into him one day
Membership
Sir Trevor Chinn CVO chairs the Motorists' Forum. His dual role as Vice-Chair to CfIT ensures there is a clear link between the two bodies. Membership of the Forum includes leaders in their fields from a wide cross-section of the motoring world - drivers, manufacturers, motoring organisations and managers of the road network. In addition to Sir Trevor Chinn, membership comprises:
Cllr Tony Brown Local Government Association
Findlay Caldwell RAC Motoring Services
Douglas Campbell OBE Disabled Drivers' Association
Helen Carey National Federation of Women's Institutes
John Dawson AA Motoring Trust
Chief Constable Stephen Green QPM Association of Chief Police Officers
David Holmes CB RAC Foundation
John Lewis British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association
Christopher Macgowan Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders
Tim Matthews Highways Agency
Richard Mills National Society for Clean Air
John Mumford OBE UK Petroleum Industry Association Ltd
Roger Putnam Ford Motor Company Ltd
Michael Roberts Confederation of British Industry
Roger Wood Automobile Association
Robert Devereux Department for Transport (Adviser to the Forum)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Updated 12 May 2003
>> Edited by outlaw on Monday 8th September 09:17
nice pic of the muppet on the web page just incase you bumb into him one day
Membership
Sir Trevor Chinn CVO chairs the Motorists' Forum. His dual role as Vice-Chair to CfIT ensures there is a clear link between the two bodies. Membership of the Forum includes leaders in their fields from a wide cross-section of the motoring world - drivers, manufacturers, motoring organisations and managers of the road network. In addition to Sir Trevor Chinn, membership comprises:
Cllr Tony Brown Local Government Association
Findlay Caldwell RAC Motoring Services
Douglas Campbell OBE Disabled Drivers' Association
Helen Carey National Federation of Women's Institutes
John Dawson AA Motoring Trust
Chief Constable Stephen Green QPM Association of Chief Police Officers
David Holmes CB RAC Foundation
John Lewis British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association
Christopher Macgowan Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders
Tim Matthews Highways Agency
Richard Mills National Society for Clean Air
John Mumford OBE UK Petroleum Industry Association Ltd
Roger Putnam Ford Motor Company Ltd
Michael Roberts Confederation of British Industry
Roger Wood Automobile Association
Robert Devereux Department for Transport (Adviser to the Forum)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Updated 12 May 2003
>> Edited by outlaw on Monday 8th September 09:17
If the '13% drop in road-deaths' claim is true i would venture it is due to less people on the roads and less pedestrians on the streets due to the fear of leaving their homes for risk of being mugged/murdered/raped and their homes being burgled/ransacked/squatted in by the hordes of drug-addicted scrotes piling in to North Wales as a result of the easy-on-street-crime-and-openly-dealing-and-consuming-drugs regime led by Herr Brunstorm and his Brunstorm Troopers.
If he actually asked people he'd know that almost all road death figures (and crime death figures) are hugely affected by luck (or the lack of).
All you need in a county is a head on between 2 full cars and your figures are well and truly screwed.
You can't legislate around or devise policies against bad luck...
All you need in a county is a head on between 2 full cars and your figures are well and truly screwed.
You can't legislate around or devise policies against bad luck...
swilly said:
If the '13% drop in road-deaths' claim is true i would venture it is due to less people on the roads and less pedestrians on the streets due to the fear of leaving their homes for risk of being mugged/murdered/raped and their homes being burgled/ransacked/squatted in by the hordes of drug-addicted scrotes piling in to North Wales as a result of the easy-on-street-crime-and-openly-dealing-and-consuming-drugs regime led by Herr Brunstorm and his Brunstorm Troopers.
Brunstrom is quick to claim credit for the reduction of 7 in North Wales fatalities - as if every death is due to a driver breaking a limit and taking pictures of them saves lives - but forgot to mention a reduction of 16 in fatalities in 1998, a reduction of 29%, long before Arrive-Alive-minus-your-licence was in operation.
I have responded thus:
Dear sir,
I notice that Professor Begg has altered his language somewhat in recent times, as have his beloved "safety" partnerships and the DFT.
Language such as speed causes crashes, has been replaced with "contributes" to crashes.
Mr Begg, along with all of his supporters, has never once demonstrated this elusive mechanism they allude to, whereby travelling over a "limit" will (according to their spiel) almost certainly guarantee a crash! In the real world thankfully, this mechanism dosent actually exist.
Maybe Professor Begg, would wish to peruse the West Midlands Accident Review, for years 1999 to 2001?
This document is complied by the police authority, and shows Professor Beggs "biggest contributors" to crashes as pedestrians, stepping out. In effect, architects of their own demise.
Excess speed as an accident cause was quoted at just 4.3%! Thats an extremely "large" factor....NOT!
I suspect that Professor Begg is a proponent of the Copenhagen Declaration, whereby drivers must be removed from private transport modes to comply with European Directives on the limiting of useage of private cars. The speed camera method is just another way of removing drivers from circulation, in an effort to comply with this declaration.
Professor Beggs' sickening praise for Richard Brunstrom is quite typical of this sort of unelected bureaucrat; Birds of a feather and all of that, as, along with Mr Brunstrom, Mr Begg seeks to apportion blame for accidents, to drivers who may be exceeding a speed limit by only 1 mph, without any offer of proof positive. What kind of madness is that?
I would suggest that Professor Begg distances himself from Mr Brunstrom, if he wishes for this reader at least, to take his comments in any way seriously.
Professor Begg thinks that the drop of 13% of accidents on North Wales roads is due to cameras, yet he makes NO allowance for the lesser volumes of traffic using the roads that cameras are now installed on. Basically it means that drivers have diverted to other roads. Thats just bad science Professor Begg.
He also makes reference to Durhams rise of 56%, which according to the Chief Constable is simply a "blip". We have heard such terminology from Mr Brunstrom also!
As for Mr Brunstrom, is it not time he was removed from office? He is the laughing stock of his force, the people he purports to protect are very much disillusioned and in fear, as he now openly calls for the decriminalisation of drugs, at the expense of real law and order, which is what he was put in that position to do, but fails spectacularly at. All for a few thousand speed tickets.
Yours Faithfully Delta F.
Dear sir,
I notice that Professor Begg has altered his language somewhat in recent times, as have his beloved "safety" partnerships and the DFT.
Language such as speed causes crashes, has been replaced with "contributes" to crashes.
Mr Begg, along with all of his supporters, has never once demonstrated this elusive mechanism they allude to, whereby travelling over a "limit" will (according to their spiel) almost certainly guarantee a crash! In the real world thankfully, this mechanism dosent actually exist.
Maybe Professor Begg, would wish to peruse the West Midlands Accident Review, for years 1999 to 2001?
This document is complied by the police authority, and shows Professor Beggs "biggest contributors" to crashes as pedestrians, stepping out. In effect, architects of their own demise.
Excess speed as an accident cause was quoted at just 4.3%! Thats an extremely "large" factor....NOT!
I suspect that Professor Begg is a proponent of the Copenhagen Declaration, whereby drivers must be removed from private transport modes to comply with European Directives on the limiting of useage of private cars. The speed camera method is just another way of removing drivers from circulation, in an effort to comply with this declaration.
Professor Beggs' sickening praise for Richard Brunstrom is quite typical of this sort of unelected bureaucrat; Birds of a feather and all of that, as, along with Mr Brunstrom, Mr Begg seeks to apportion blame for accidents, to drivers who may be exceeding a speed limit by only 1 mph, without any offer of proof positive. What kind of madness is that?
I would suggest that Professor Begg distances himself from Mr Brunstrom, if he wishes for this reader at least, to take his comments in any way seriously.
Professor Begg thinks that the drop of 13% of accidents on North Wales roads is due to cameras, yet he makes NO allowance for the lesser volumes of traffic using the roads that cameras are now installed on. Basically it means that drivers have diverted to other roads. Thats just bad science Professor Begg.
He also makes reference to Durhams rise of 56%, which according to the Chief Constable is simply a "blip". We have heard such terminology from Mr Brunstrom also!
As for Mr Brunstrom, is it not time he was removed from office? He is the laughing stock of his force, the people he purports to protect are very much disillusioned and in fear, as he now openly calls for the decriminalisation of drugs, at the expense of real law and order, which is what he was put in that position to do, but fails spectacularly at. All for a few thousand speed tickets.
Yours Faithfully Delta F.
Deltaf - you are so right - he is definitely pro-Copenhagen Declaration:
www.cardiff.gov.uk/capitaltimes/full_news.asp?cat=372
I think I've found a new hate target!!!
www.cardiff.gov.uk/capitaltimes/full_news.asp?cat=372
I think I've found a new hate target!!!
206xsi/deltaf
If you are having a check out Mr David Begg campaign, please try and ask him how he believes himself to have acquired the right to be addressed as Professor.
I never managed to find out the truthful answer.
: putswoodenspoonbackonwall:
>> Edited by Flat in Fifth on Monday 8th September 14:21
If you are having a check out Mr David Begg campaign, please try and ask him how he believes himself to have acquired the right to be addressed as Professor.
I never managed to find out the truthful answer.
: putswoodenspoonbackonwall:
>> Edited by Flat in Fifth on Monday 8th September 14:21
FiF - any clues? You've egged me on....
Maybe you can drop me an email with any helpful hints for getting hold of him?
Edited to say:
Think I might have found it - unless there are 2 Scottish Professors called David Begg advising the Government...
Economics at Oxford...
>> Edited by 206xsi on Monday 8th September 14:39
Maybe you can drop me an email with any helpful hints for getting hold of him?
Edited to say:
Think I might have found it - unless there are 2 Scottish Professors called David Begg advising the Government...
Economics at Oxford...
>> Edited by 206xsi on Monday 8th September 14:39
About Professor David Begg
Professor David Begg is Chairman of the Commission for
Integrated Transport (CfIT). CfIT is an independent body
advising Government on integrated transport policy and
monitoring progress. The Commission provides expert advice
and carries out independent research on transport issues and
their interface with environment, health, the economy and
society generally.
David is also Director of the Centre for Transport Policy at the
Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, and Director of the Portobello Partnership.
David is a non-Executive Director for the Strategic Rail Authority, and is a Board
Member of Transport for London.
From 1994 to 1999, he was Convener of the Transportation Committee on the City
of Edinburgh Council and Transport Spokesperson for the Convention of Scottish
Local Authorities.
David has been a member of the Panel of Experts advising on transport policy in
Northern Ireland, and was a member of the independent Panel of Experts, which
advised the Railways Task Force in its consideration of the future of the railway
network in Northern Ireland during 2000.
David also advised the UK Government during the preparation of the Integrated
Transport White Paper and, more recently, the UK Transport 10 Year Plan.
David Begg is the Professor of Transport at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and an advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, on transport issues. In the summer of 1999 he was appointed by the UK Government as the chair of the newly formed Commission for Integrated Transport. From 1994-99 he was/is also the transport spokesperson for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the Convenor of the City of Edinburgh transport committee, and in these roles has had a major influence devising and implementing the schemes you will see in action in Edinburgh and in shaping the UK's national transport agenda. He is in the forefront of ideas for reducing traffic in city centres and financing a sustainable transport infrastructure
In addition to his academic experience and his time running transport on Edinburgh City Council, Professor Begg was briefly a TSSA member in the 1980s.
His hobbies include golf, running and supporting Hibernian Football Club.
Tel: +44 (0)1224 263134
Fax: +44 (0)1224 263129
Email: d.begg@rgu.ac.uk
Is that good enough?
deltaf said:
About Professor David Begg
.....and an advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, on transport issues.......
"Av a Jag, John, go on, on second thoughts av two jags John. Now on public transport policy - How do stop people driving cars and get them on to public transport"
From sniffing around the Net it appears that all this guy does is visit various councils discussing transport.
He's been to Plymouth, Cardiff, Lancaster, next week he's in Australia for heaven's sake!
He's on Red Ken's TFL board - makes a lot of sense.
And to top it all - it appears that he is at the top of the pyramid of people suggesting GPS tracking for congestion charges...
This guy needs lynching - and fast
He's been to Plymouth, Cardiff, Lancaster, next week he's in Australia for heaven's sake!
He's on Red Ken's TFL board - makes a lot of sense.
And to top it all - it appears that he is at the top of the pyramid of people suggesting GPS tracking for congestion charges...
This guy needs lynching - and fast
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