Have a look at this article and see if you can spot where it’s all going wrong..
If, like me, you caught yourself saying things like “where’s the common sense?”, “That’s health and safety gone mad!” or indeed anything pertaining to such sentiments, please stand to receive your applause.
Dominic.. sit with a cup of strong coffee – we need to talk.
Okay, so I can accept that you may have some statistics which point to road death being “the greatest avoidable public health epidemic”, but I still have to ask why you would consider the implementation of 20MPH ‘zones’ in residential areas to be so vital? Presumably you think the ‘axle and chassis-wrecking’ speed bumps aren’t enough to contend with? You say it's very hard to understand how we have not been “scandalised by inaction”, and ask what “cultural disease has allowed us to tolerate this preventable risk”? I think I have an answer for you.
Consider this – we call it scandalous when we witness CCTV footage of horseplay on our rail network, or read stories of some poor unfortunate maintenance worker charged with scooping up the scattered/pulped remains of another rail victim into the nearest available bucket. Every time we see a news article relating to someone’s misfortune (usually through stupidity or impatience) we are up in arms - but this general condemnation is usually directed at the behaviour of our protagonist. We don’t see huge swathes of the general public marching in protest, demanding that all our trains be restricted to 20MPH when they pass close to a house, or through our towns and villages. Why not?
I grew up with a deep respect for the train lines. I always thought train lines were a fabulously stupid place to muck about. When I was younger I had Darth Vader appear on the TV, in between "Magpie" and "The Tomorrow People", telling me to look both ways when crossing the road, and to refrain from behaving like a complete arse (I’m paraphrasing of course..). I had a little boy with his highly intelligent cat called Charlie who used to agree with Darth Vader on many such matters, as well as warning me off the idea of accepting offers of sweets and puppies from strangers. I even had the Grim Reaper (disguised as Donald Pleasence, I presume for that extra chill) warning me not to take any unneccessary risks near water. There also used to be a thread of wisdom in popular circulation about not allowing your child to see the road as a play area or free-for-all - in fact, just as we seem to still feel about the train tracks.
Here’s my thought Dominic. As laudable as it is to be concerned about the difference a 10MPH reduction may bring, I propose that instead we re-introduce a little common sense into the UK. I agree with you – a speed reduction would make it slightly less painful for everyone, and increase the chances of tears rather than death, but I can’t escape the feeling that we would instead simply be removing our parent’s need to educate with one hand, and our child’s need to think, with the other. If our child were to sensibly equate the road with possible injury or death then perhaps they might also stand a chance of reasoning that the train tracks aren’t a top spot for a bit of fun as well? It would be even cheaper than implementing 'zones', and less of a burden for drivers, who already seem to have enough to contend with as they struggle to get from A to B. As for that “cultural disease” you’re trying to quantify Dominic, I think it’s the same one which seems to be strangling everything in the UK these days – an unjustifiable fear of life permeating our day-to-day existence, and one which I see threatening to kill us all off in a frightfully more insidious way than any car ambling through a residential area.
Just in case you think I’m being in any way biased, I think it’s also worth noting for the record that I don’t hold a driving licence.
Peace.
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