Rigpig wrote:
SafeSpeed wrote:
Rigpig wrote:
basingwerk wrote:
Unfortunately, on our greedy and self obsessed little island, those days are gone, and we are left with a ME first generation of tailgaters, speeders and all manner of other impatient toe-rags.
Yeah well, I've made this (and/or similar points) in other threads but each time it's given a damned good ignoring. Most folks seem to find it easier to grab hold of a small issue and extrapolate it or nitpick it to death rather than face the fact that British society is precesiely as you paint it.
We can't separate it out can we? I think the sorts of road safety messages we're getting are making us selfish and impatient.
Isn't a growth in selfishness inevitably a consequence of the gradual removal of responsibilities from the individual towards the state? Instead of properly managing our own territory and resources, we tend to end up defending a load of false borders defined by the state. This style of behaviour applies to all limits including speed limits. I see a lot of demarkation and fierce defence. Hell, it's right here in this forum and this thread!
Nice try Paul, but it runs a lot lot deeper than you suggest. My line of work sees me meeting and dealing with an awful lot of young people in their late teens and early twenties and believe me my friend they are
completely different animals to what you or I were like at that age.
They live their lives to a completely different set of beliefs and standards the roots of which can be traced back to the Thatcher years when the Me First society was just in its infancy. They are the so-called Generation X and Ys.
It doesn't therefore take a great leap of imagination to see that the paradigm shift in attitudes that prevail today (versus 30 years ago) results in behaviour changes on the roads as much as anywhere else. Thus, the hysterical reaction to the enforcement of speed limits is perhaps an unsurprising function of the "I'll do what the hell I like" attitude that we have engeandered.
HOWEVER, as I said elsewhere - as a society we may be hell bent on self-destruction but repeatedly telling people they are, in effect stupid, begats belligerence rather than an "Oh yes of course you are right, silly me, I'll modify my behaviour immediately" reaction. We need to steer a slower and more steady course back towards a clamer more altruistic society - big clubs don't work.
I'm very happy to accept that we have wider social ills to address. If you want my uninformed opinion about the source of the trouble, I'd largely blame TV for illustrating idealised lifestyles that we tend to aspire to but can't afford. The weakest members of society are the most vulnerable to the resultant inequality between what they believe they deserve and what they can foresee achieving.
You're also absolutely correct to claim that the loss of trend in road safety could, in part, be due to wider social changes. We don't know - it's a question of judgement at present.
But, and there are two big buts:
1) We know that modern road safety policy has a range of negative side effects. Until they are quantified we can't answer the questions with authority and a precautionary principle should be applied.
2) We're not actually talking about wider social ills and the challenge becomes to improve road safety IN SPITE OF (any) wider social ills. We can and should still do that by
positively working on road safety culture.