Pratnership wrote:
anton wrote:
The proof that drinking is down is in the numbers of pubs closing. If people are drinking at home then they are unlikly to stagger on the road to reach thier bed. It could also be proved by the quantity or revenue recieved by customs and excise in taxes.
Talking to my colleages thier plans for the weekend are scaled down as most seam to be repaying thier credit card. Big weekends seam to start saturday, not friday
Also if you visit a pub or resturant mid week at the moment it is like a ghost town!... are your eyes shut?
But is that decreasing the number of drink drivers?
No. Because they tend to drink at home.. all of the crate of "buy x bottles for a tenner"
Quote:
Btw, mine are open, and I see the clubs around here as busy as ever. Weather or not more/less people are drink driving I couldn't guess (or assume, ahem
) either way.
The people I talk to are just not having meals when they go out - they are still drinking the same. It seems the way a lot of people are cutting down is mainly avoiding meals when they go out.
Either way, it's a bit too much to say DD numbers have gone down based on the fact we are in a recession, though I haven't seen much evidence of that around here (which is a nice thing).
Isn't there some recent DD statistics around somewhere? That would surely settle the guesswork.
Errr - do an FOI on this area. You might find we are still nailing them via "campaigns of the month" in particular. Summer BBQ season does wreak some havoc as the fave tipples are cider and lager apparently ...
But all the same .. our stats are still less than the national average by a third. We had a bad press when our stats showed an increase in 2002 over 2001 (and we were still that constant third lower overall ... but would prefer it to be lower to show some progress on our part ..
). We had a drop in overall traffic volume due to FMD that year. I think traffic volume is reducing overall because of the recession. I also think that the overall speeds on our patch of the A1 (M) are not as high as they once were from observation when on that road and from our own root figures.
But it's stil nothing to crow about. Check out Wildy's foreign stat threads last month.
She linked directly to the EU stat office and it shows some worrying trends as regards UK pedestrians/cyclists and drunk stats by comparison to rest of Europe. Per that thread - we have not improved our motorway casualties - but remain static in 4th place behind Switzerland/Finland and France (who tie for second apparently
as regards improvements.) We also lag behind as regards our A roads.
Oh and before Greenshed starts off on one...
the stats are not compiled on numbers dead or injured.. but
by the percentage and statistics showing the level of improvements within the year per thousand km travelled per capita of road user If you look at these showings - UK has not made that great an improvement on aggregate and why we have slipped down the ratings despite having the lowest number of deceased and injured on the roads - but the highest in numeric terms of injured and dead pedestrians and cyclists .. - which also record a seriously high number of children by comparison to Europe ..
I see nothing then to self-congratulate over.
Not even in Co Durham as we should be doing a hell of a lot better. We just seem to keep steady in-line with the national average. In real terms - we should be approaching 50% below national average given the special importance/training and trust we input to our RPU here. Overall - I'd say we deliver a fair enough return - but like everywhere else - I have to admit there's plenty of room for improvement on our road safety policy. But unless we break through the complacency out there and an acceptance that we need to constantly remind folk of the obvious - as in COA(A)ST - we are on a road to nowhere here. We also require all drivers ) to evaluate their skills honestly - as that's how we all learn. I will bet all evaluate their computer/professional skills in such upwardly progressive fashion
Driving and cycling and even walking for pleasure - should be no different