smeggy wrote:
It’s the arrogance of authorities and their propensity to do what the hell they like because nobody ever challenges their self-interested behaviour these days that creates disobedience.
Nicely put sir. Now for one of my essays.
In my mind, traffic lights should only be put in, and only be operational, where and when it is not otherwise possible for all legal movements to be completed safely and reasonably quickly. They were only invented in the first place to improve safety and traffic flow.
Nowadays, it is glaringly obvious that many councils are abusing traffic signals to impede traffic flow, by putting them at junctions where any half-decent driver could tell they were not required, and operating them 24 hours. It would be better if they were vehicle-actuated, but they are frequently given fixed phasing instead, and bad phasing at that. It's quite deliberate, and apart from anything else, it shows how little the authorities really care about "the environment" because it makes traffic start and stop unnecessarily.
The only reason that going through a red light is an endorsable offence is because it's supposed to be a safety violation. But if someone jumps a clearly unnecessary set of traffic lights which didn't use to be there, from a side road, when there's little or no traffic, while performing the same checks that they would have done before the lights and being extra-vigilant for pedestrians, then that's not unsafe, that's just defying the council's wish to constrict traffic flow. Even if you think "the law" is sacred, "the law" said their judgment was OK before, and nothing's really changed. Besides, this idea that motorists can't judge for themselves is nonsense perpetuated by anti-car nutters; judgment is an essential part of driving and should be encouraged, applauded and developed as far as possible. Some junctions are too complicated or busy for human judgment; most are not.
It's well-established that if you cry wolf, be it with traffic lights, speed limits or yellow lines, you will devalue the restrictions that should be there, and people will start to defy the restrictions more. It's no good bleating that it shouldn't happen: it will happen, and we have to deal with things as they are rather than things as some people think they should be. The response to crying wolf is human nature: it always has been (hence the "crying wolf" fable, which has self-evidently been around for a few years) and it always will be, and I don't think it's a bad thing.
I would be much more worried if people just took all this crap (even more than they did already) and obeyed all regulations equally without questioning them. I normally hesitate to invoke it but that does remind me of the Third Reich. Having said that, if someone wants to obey all traffic signals, speed limits and yellow lines, no matter how ridiculous, then that's entirely up to them, it's their absolute right and I don't think any less of them (as long as they don't try to police people, in which case I think a lot less of them, because they're interfering scum). I just don't think it's unhealthy that others are not always so keen to do so when it's quite obvious (to a reasonable driver, whose judgment as I say should be trusted) that no harm will come from not doing it.
Rigpig is right in that there has been a decline of respect and morality in this country, but that is a separate issue, and is perpetrated by different types of people. When otherwise decent, "normal" drivers who are not part of the respect problem (and indeed are getting fed up with it) are being tempted to disobey traffic signals, speed limits and yellow lines because of overuse, that's very worrying, and the blame quite clearly lies with the authorities rather than the motorists.
People in general haven't changed that much, the authorities are just taking the piss more and more, and for no-one's benefit but their own. Rigpig should be as outraged as the rest of us that those who are supposed to be serving all of us (including him) are instead taking advantage of us. It's a waste of everyone's time and money, it's a cause of frustration and ultimately possible road rage, and it's really about time that it stopped.
_________________
Paul Smith: a legend.
"The freedom provided by the motor vehicle is not universally applauded, however: there are those who resent the loss of state control over individual choice that the car represents. Such people rarely admit their prejudices openly; instead, they make false or exaggerated claims about the adverse effects of road transport in order to justify calls for higher taxation or restrictions on mobility." (
Conservative Way Forward:
Stop The War Against Drivers)