Safe Speed Forums

Just some thoughts I had while going to work the other day, not stricktly about road safety etc. but I'll give them an airing anyway. Appologies if the same idea has seen the light of day before.

We already have a fantastic amount of passenger carrying capacity on our roads, but we only used a small fraction of that capacity, making the current transport system a tad inefficient.

Car share schemes might help a bit ... but ... how about letting private motorists charge to carry passengers? I don't mean to make a profit, maybe just enough to cover the cost of the passenger's fuel share.

Perhaps a scheme something like this ....

Drivers who have passed an advanced driving test can pick up/drop off passengers anywhere and charge for share of fuel for length of passenger's journey.

Could have swipe card system? which is connected to car computer to determine accuratley actual fuel used by each passenger and cost.

Only vehicles which meet certain fuel consumtion/pollution/safety criteria can be used.

The idea is to use the existing resources much more efficiently, e.g. less vehicles on the road but carrying more passengers. Promote better driving standards as only drivers who pass an advanced test can take part. Promote the use of more efficient cleaner vehicles.

Is the idea worth any more thought and discussion or is it fatally flawed?

All those required Criminal Records Bureau checks (in case children are carried) should put paid to this. I can imagine people being keen to get into a stranger's car, can't you?

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

High-tech hitchhiking?

Yes can see this could be a problem but not sure its a deal breaker, could there be a way of minimising risk? Technical solution .. record kept of every card swiped?

Kind of ... but the hitchhiker would be paying for fuel used, and the vehicle driver would have passed an advanced driving test.

The swipe card could be stolen. Once in your car its too late.
I went to court in portsmouth and the case before ours was a chap who uses any private car in Portsmouth as a taxi. He gets in and orders you to take him somewhere and then as he gets out he rummages through your glove box for phones, sat-nav etc. Every one in the court room knew him except me and the judge. Other defendants did not want thier faces seen, nor did the journalists with me.

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

problem is the amount of setting up and policing it'd take. then when it's an official system with payments you have to think of liabilities in accidents etc etc etc.

Car share schemes, like most things, need to be simple by nature, for example, how about tax concessions for companies that provide housing for a % of employees, a number of people all living in close proximity and working in the same place could make car sharing convenient & effecitive and the default choice for people.

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

Hiya Anton, thank for your input.



Yes it could be stolen .. also the car could be stolen .. the guy driving it might not have a licence ... car might not be roadworthy .. passenger and/or driver might be complete utter criminally psychotic nutters ... I might walk out the door tomorrow morning and get run over by a drunk driving a 30 ton truck on the pavement. Is there any activity on the planet that is 100% safe ... of course not ... so don't think fear of criminal activity really sinks the idea.

I've hitchhiked the length and breadth of the country (yes ok it was ummm a few years back!), and the worst that ever happened was I got dropped off at a place that took took a day and a half to get a lift from to anywhere else. Mind you some strangers I've had lifts from really were terrifying, some gave me food, some gave accomodation, occasionally some even offered money cos I looked a bit skint, OMG how frightening & dangerous is that!

There are a fair few nutters driving around every day, no licence, uninsured, drunk, on drugs, just plain unskilled drivers etc etc. There are people killed and maimed on the roads every day, but I (and presumably you) choose to still drive on the roads .. am I insane? Well I don't think so cos I reckon that if I drive to a high enough standard the benifits still outweigh the risks and I'm not planning on stopping anytime soon.

The point I'm trying to make is that just because there are criminals in this world doesn't mean we have shut ourselves in a concrete bunker for ever .. well its not in my plans anyway!

Hmmm ... so I suppose really the question is ... would the benefits outweigh the risks?

Yes can see that insurance etc could be a problem.

I'm with you on keeping things simple, but after having a think about it not sure it absolutely needs to be. Say for instance the govt spent the road pricing/congestion charging budgets on getting more people into fewer vehicles, that might pay for a fair bit of complexity?... Whooooops now thats NEVER gonna work .. there's no money to be made there charging people to use roads or enter city centres ... silly me.

There are various schemes around and some work through websites that are independent or even council run and this helps a bit.

As a woman I just would not get involved, no matter who ran it for fear of problems. It makes me too vulnerable. I think that it is a sad world however.
I would happily take work colleagues or friends anywhere though and often do join up trips where we can but what if you change your plans or have to stay back at work ?
Well one scheme in London had a solution - you have a car piggy bank scheme where someone else would take you - I don't know if it still runs...
I think that having it is a great idea but I think company based one's are good but not run by the company / business (again and sadly now-a-days for fear of more reprisals)!
Colleagues have previously 'worked together' and I think that more can be made of this.
But then I usually much prefer to drive myself.
When driving abilities are different an unknown 'to you', 'passenger', may indicate that you drive 'in chauffeur mode' and that may not be what you want - either...
So there are good points and bad and I think that if you can make it work then great, but it is a tricky one to get the right balance ....
and the liable is fraught with problems .... esp in this day & age...

The congestion actually works itself out, and with properly run roads with free flowing traffic, as much as possible not deliberately slowed as seems to be happening, then the natural flow of the road is less constricted, and people work out their trips to avoid the busiest times... it literally and naturally flows, if you don't go in and muck it up !!! The attack on our roads causes many of the problems that they are now supposedly trying to solve!
A classic case of - create a problem = solve the problem = pat on back !!

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

I work in an office in the north west, and our head office is in Hampshire. I am in a fairly large team, but only 4 of us are based in the north west - the remainder are based in 2 sites in the midlands, or at head office.

Of the 4 of us in the north west, 3 live within about 10-12 miles of each other, the other one lives in the wilds of the Wirral.

We use a complex piece of technology to plan our travel so that we can car share as much as possible. It's not for "green" reasons per se, more of a company thing; spending lots of time on your own in the car, the occasional intelligent adult to share with is pretty useful. Not to mention the extra 5p/mile per passenger tax relief you can claim if using your own car rather than company car (we all have car allowances).

We try to work it so that we can share journeys both ways, or one way and get the train for the other journey. It's not a perfect system, but we have managed to completely eradicate the times when we all arrived in Hampshire at the same time, and left to travel home at the same time.

The technology is a "piece of paper", with the "pencil" upgrade. We all write our planned movements on a calendar, and where there are overlaps, we introduce a third technique that we call "talking to each other". It may mean extending a trip by a couple of hours, or travelling down a day early, and in such circumstances we capitalise by arranging meetings with other people based in the head office. Face time is valuable for remote workers!

It's not just the people who live close by who benefit, even the Wirral Squirrel gets in on the car shares, he can get a lift or a train to somewhere on the route (usually Lymm services) and continue the journey.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

You are missing one of the main reasons people have a private car. If they wanted to share the journey with random members of the public they would take the bus.

Sharing of cars will never work unless all the people in the car are working in the same company, and living in the same street.
The problem with roads today is the GOV. havent spent all our road tax on roads. Its no good constructing motorways and dual carriage ways that just end up in a bottle neck.
Also the GOV. should stop creating tighter roads, restricting roads that were through roads before just to cause conjestion and eventually will charge for it, They even have gone to projecting bus stops into the road to create a hold up. In places they have reduced the width of a road from 4 lanes to 2 lanes.ITS ALL DESIGNED TO MAKE MOTORISTS PAY MORE.

I've long-term car-shared with 3 different people over the years, none of whom lived in my street

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

Round my way we call that an omnibus

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

No it's not either of these. It's getting into work and leaving at the same time that is the issue. That and "emergencies".

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

But I bet they lived nearby I should have said close proximity, now tell me they lived miles away!!

I've just checked using Google Maps. The first was 0.8 miles away; the second was about 1.0 miles; the last was 1.5 miles (but that last one was for a long commute).

Yes Malcolm, emergencies were always a PITA

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

When at college and for the first few years at work (early seventies) car sharing was the norm and I would regularly have a car full for about 4 years. The furthest was about two miles away but on route.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

Nobody have a car club in their locality?

http://www.staveley-gti.co.uk/carclub.shtml

I have taken my car off the road, SORNd it and taken to riding my bike to and from work.
My wife still has her car - and of course we wrok together, so I can use hers for those occasional necessary journeys.

I considered leasing my vehicle out to the car club - but to be honest, I'm a bit perturbed by the standard of driving I see around the village!
Also, I'd have to pay per mile to go on holiday to France in July!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!