Sometimes we have to sacrifice dearly held beliefs and concepts in the face of pragmatism and the real world.
Believe it or not, local average speed cameras are a case in point.
The rise of CCTV on our streets and of ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) systems has led to increased paranoia in some quarters and blind belief that a benevolent and 'cuddly' state is looking after us all in others: exactly what Orwell predicted over a half-century ago.
The reality is neither - the reality is that both central and local governments are too inefficient to be able to handle the waterfalls of information coming their way and that the vast majority of we citizens lead lives that are simply too boring and ordinary to warrant attention anyway - sorry to all Daily Mail and Guardian readers but that includes you both! However, what they are good at is drilling down through the huge amounts of data to focus on a single or very few individuals who have managed to make themselves noticed and once you are 'a person of interest' the systems exist to track, trace and traduce every element of your life. This is the real danger of these new tools of Government - that they can, and will, be mis-used unless there are strict controls over their use. We cannot dis-invent the technology but we can stand up and demand that the control of it rests with 'we the people' and that the forces that seek to control us are held properly to account. Maybe we need to take 'State Security' protection away from all elected officials and those that they appoint and publish all their movements and accesses?
One thing that we have to learn is that without every camera being constantly monitored these systems are completely useless at spotting something that is actually happening - what they are good at is tracking back and showing exactly what occurred at a point in the past and, one again, the cost of tracking and tracing every little event is simply not something that a government that has to account for its employees and appointees can afford to pay for.
All the cameras in the world will not prevent a terrorist from committing a dastardly deed if they are not afraid of being taken to task AFTER THE EVENT but tracking back to discover who and what and how did it all come about afterwards - that is the power of the technology.
Which brings me to the point of this post.
I am fed up with 'Sleeping Policemen', 'rumble strips', 'waisted passages' and all the other measures that have been introduced to keep the speed of drivers down to what the local council deems appropriate. Islington has introduced humps so steep that they are impossible to ride over at over 5 mph - not a misprint - and other councils have created 'Alternate Passage' systems where for every hundred meters the street is waisted and alternate right of way means that no driver can actually get into third gear - these councils claim that they are acting in a 'Green' manner but the amount of fuel wasted is incredible. Simply Gatso cameras are useless or worse because they encourage drivers to speed up to the camera and then slow down until they are past the markings - once more the waste of fuel as cars speed up and slow down is ridiculous.
I accept that on 'B' roads a slower speed than on 'A' roads is sensible and I even accept 25 miles per hour as a good figure - everywhere; not 15 mph in Islington and 30 in Harrow; a uniform 'B' road speed limit.
Then put in the average speed cameras at the beginning and end of these roads and use this to keep people to sensible speeds. Don't plaster them around a whole area - use them in a targeted manner around schools and residential areas and prosecute everyone who gets caught - how's about a three strikes policy where your car goes to the crusher as well as taking your license - even the Prince of Dubai might take notice if his Bugatti went into the crusher! Oh, and penalise the council if the cameras are out of alignment or incorrectly set-up.
You can't uninvent the technology but with the right legislation it can be used for our own good and not just those with an axe to grind.
Friday 20 August 2010
Wednesday 4 August 2010
RECLAIM THE ROADS WE PAID FOR!
Somedays I feel like a member of the most hated race on the planet. I am reviled for my beliefs, attacked for my actions, sneered at by those who do not share my worldview and ‘soaked’ to pay for everyone who doesn’t belong to my clan. Unfortunately no-one has yet permitted ‘Driver’ as a religion under any act.
We all know the litany of issues that we, as ‘drivers’ have to suffer. We are taxed in every possible way – we pay Car Tax, Road Tax, Petrol tax, VAT on the taxes, Tolls on any new roads and many of the old ones, VAT on the Tolls. We pay speeding fines, fines for parking, fines for encroaching in lanes designated for everybody else and fines for loading/unloading in vehicles that are not designated as appropriate. We even pay tax (charges if you will) to use the roads that we have paid for during the hours that we are most likely to need them in the hope that the roads will miraculously become clear and all the pedestrians and cyclists can flood into the town centres and frolic in the empty streets.
There is a very good reason why the roads are congested – there are too many pedestrians and cyclists travelling a too slow a speed and requiring the regular stopping of faster traffic to allow them to get by!
Before you decide that this is a daft comment think a moment. If a car, or a bike or a van or a truck or a lorry or even a Tank, is travelling at 30 miles per hour then it will get to a destination 15 miles away in 30 minutes. BUT, and this is a big but, the vehicle takes time to get up to 30 miles per hour – it does not just go from Stop – 30 mph in a second. Every time you stop the vehicle you add another delay as it slows to a stop and speeds back up again – every traffic light at ‘Stop’ adds to the congestion and to the slow speed of the roads.
Some time ago a number of roads were designated as ‘Red Routes’ with no stopping; this was to allow the traffic flow to be constant. Then the rules were relaxed to allow for stopping for short periods in designated boxes, then they added bus lanes and then they added more traffic lights to allow the pedestrians to cross. Cyclists are allowed free use of the Red Routes irrelevant of the speed that they are capable of (NOT 30 mph) which forces the buses to come out of the Bus lane and into the other lanes. And when the Red Routes slow to a crawl who gets the blame – Drivers.
If a bus stops at a bus stop (its what they are made for after all) in the bus lane, what happens to the other buses that are NOT stopping at the bus stop – they don’t queue, they enter the other lanes.
What makes it worst is that more often than not there is no traffic on the crossway and no pedestrians waiting to cross – which driver has not been held up for 2, 3 or even 4 minutes on a set of lights where nothing else is happening.
We are all aware of the constant drip of venom aimed at the drivers in our society and of the constant flood of money from our wallets to pay for the roads and much else.
Anyone else would be up in arms and threatening violent revolution at the unfairness and unrepresentative assault of our freedoms and good names.
Next time a cyclist flips you the finger as he cuts you up at a junction just ignore him (it is almost always a him) and drive on regardless – don’t forget that he has no insurance and pays no road tax – let’s see how long it takes before they begin to obey the same rules of the road as most drivers do.
RECLAIM THE ROADS WE PAID FOR!
We all know the litany of issues that we, as ‘drivers’ have to suffer. We are taxed in every possible way – we pay Car Tax, Road Tax, Petrol tax, VAT on the taxes, Tolls on any new roads and many of the old ones, VAT on the Tolls. We pay speeding fines, fines for parking, fines for encroaching in lanes designated for everybody else and fines for loading/unloading in vehicles that are not designated as appropriate. We even pay tax (charges if you will) to use the roads that we have paid for during the hours that we are most likely to need them in the hope that the roads will miraculously become clear and all the pedestrians and cyclists can flood into the town centres and frolic in the empty streets.
There is a very good reason why the roads are congested – there are too many pedestrians and cyclists travelling a too slow a speed and requiring the regular stopping of faster traffic to allow them to get by!
Before you decide that this is a daft comment think a moment. If a car, or a bike or a van or a truck or a lorry or even a Tank, is travelling at 30 miles per hour then it will get to a destination 15 miles away in 30 minutes. BUT, and this is a big but, the vehicle takes time to get up to 30 miles per hour – it does not just go from Stop – 30 mph in a second. Every time you stop the vehicle you add another delay as it slows to a stop and speeds back up again – every traffic light at ‘Stop’ adds to the congestion and to the slow speed of the roads.
Some time ago a number of roads were designated as ‘Red Routes’ with no stopping; this was to allow the traffic flow to be constant. Then the rules were relaxed to allow for stopping for short periods in designated boxes, then they added bus lanes and then they added more traffic lights to allow the pedestrians to cross. Cyclists are allowed free use of the Red Routes irrelevant of the speed that they are capable of (NOT 30 mph) which forces the buses to come out of the Bus lane and into the other lanes. And when the Red Routes slow to a crawl who gets the blame – Drivers.
If a bus stops at a bus stop (its what they are made for after all) in the bus lane, what happens to the other buses that are NOT stopping at the bus stop – they don’t queue, they enter the other lanes.
What makes it worst is that more often than not there is no traffic on the crossway and no pedestrians waiting to cross – which driver has not been held up for 2, 3 or even 4 minutes on a set of lights where nothing else is happening.
We are all aware of the constant drip of venom aimed at the drivers in our society and of the constant flood of money from our wallets to pay for the roads and much else.
Anyone else would be up in arms and threatening violent revolution at the unfairness and unrepresentative assault of our freedoms and good names.
Next time a cyclist flips you the finger as he cuts you up at a junction just ignore him (it is almost always a him) and drive on regardless – don’t forget that he has no insurance and pays no road tax – let’s see how long it takes before they begin to obey the same rules of the road as most drivers do.
RECLAIM THE ROADS WE PAID FOR!
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