SafeSpeed wrote:
Folks, we have no evidence that this poster is 'trolling' as such.
He's registered with a local authority email address and it may well be that he is entirely sincere.
We need to give new users the benefit of the doubt when we can and when it is reasonable to do so.
Fair enough. It looked like a standard "stirring" post to me (and the less than perfect punctuation didn't help), but perhaps not. It's depressing that anyone in authority could have such an apparently unenlightened and simplistic view of road safety, but I don't suppose that's news to most of us. Still, if he's genuinely prepared to listen to reason, all to the good.
Perhaps "safetyman" could explain how he is dealing with the 95+% of accidents which aren't caused by otherwise law abiding drivers exceeding a speed limit. What ideas does he have other than speed measuring devices and obstructions that are supposed to "slow us down"? It's an amazing coincidence that these days all "road safety" measures just happen to make driving less pleasant. I'm sure "safetyman" agrees that road safety should always be exclusively about safety, and not discouraging car use. You can't pursue both agendas optimally, and there are lives at stake.
And incidentally, as PeterE's signature alludes to, there's no such thing as a remotely competent driver who hasn't exceeded a speed limit. Councillors, politicians (those who deign to drive), off-duty police officers, magistrates and even "safety" camera pratnership employees all speed frequently, even to meetings where they demonise "speeding", and to court where they pretend to be outraged at some poor sod who's done 35mph at the wrong time on a road that was NSL until last year. The whole thing is utterly ridiculous. Preposterous. Demented. Throughout history, in all the most foul, draconian and brutal regimes, I doubt we've ever seen such incredible, blatant, absurd hypocrisy from the authorities. A waste of so many millions of people's lives, time, money and careers, and yet still, unbelievably, it goes on, and some people blindly defend it. Cameras don't work, they never have, and they never will, because they can't, being the wrong tool for the job. How much more suffering does there have to be?
The charade must stop right now and real road safety, based on skill and attitude rather than rules and baseless preaching, must start. Those with vested interests (Callaous bastards that they are, and they know who they are) will never be persuaded, but there are still far too many who really believe that the current regime works, and they need to be educated ASAP, starting hopefully with "safetyman", who hopefully views people's lives as being more important than the possibility of losing face if he changes his mind about cameras et al.
I apologise for any unintentional typing mistakes in this post. You know how I'm always screwing up on that front.
_________________
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)