Why the need for SPEED (Debate)

Fri 5 Dec 2008, 11:06

Roger, I assume the latter part of your post is directed at me. BTW, it's 'effects', not 'affects.

Because you have actually tried to engage in this discussion and mainly because of your comments in the early part of your post about you personally taking more caution when driving near cyclists and pedestrians, I'm going to try and justify my position to you and perhaps shed some light on my anger which regretfully, I sometimes fail to contain.

The fact that one (albeit small), consequence of my going on and on about unsafe drivers has been for you to actually take the self-responsibility of increasing your awareness of cyclists and pedestrians when you're driving locally (or anywhere), has made all of my efforts worthwhile.

And let's be clear: I'm not insinuating you are a poor driver or were less than cautious before our long standing debate, I really have no idea of how well you drive; but the very fact that you are now paying more attention was the only goal I ever had in starting this discussion in the first place. (Obviously, not just for you but every driver reading).

I just wish more local drivers would take a leaf out of your book.
The roads in and around Charlbury are not designed for some Top Gear road test; on the contrary, as has been repeatedly mentioned, they are old, narrow roads, many of them and even the new roads are not suited for fast driving because of the number of children and elderly who need to cross those roads.

I know I've pissed people off, including yourself by the tone I've taken occasionally during the debate and I have made an honest effort to temper my responses to what I perceive as some of the more outrageous, disingenuous and downright moronic remarks I've read in response to my pleas for safer driving, cycle/pedestrian demarkations and a permanent school crossing on The Slade.

I just think bringing up issues like my nationality or the recklessness of Oxford cyclists are complete non-sequiturs and really just cover deep insecurities about having any faults pointed out at all.

It reminds me of that cartoon (which appeared in the New Yorker, BTW) of the theatre usher who runs from a blazing foyer into the theatre shouting 'Fire! Fire!', only to have a seated posh woman turn to her husband comment and obliviously 'How rude'.

Obviously not as funny without the visual, but that is often how I feel trying to bring road safety issues to the fore here. And it isn't just on the forum, the efforts I've made through the school (who do in fact support the installation of a crossing), the LA and the county have all been met with either vague indifference, bizzare rejection of any notion of traffic control. I actually had a local planner try and explain to me that school crossings were more dangerous for childen because drivers paid more attention when there wasn't a crossing and besides, as a parent I should know how hard it is to control children!

Those who have supported my efforts to encourage traffic calming and a permanent school crossing have also met with a bizzare, unexplained resistance from planning authorities.

On one occasion I was actually accused of trying to lose the Lolly Pop Lady her job!

The other myth I'd like to diffuse here is that I'm somehow anti-motorist, anti driver, anti-anything-that-burns-petrol.

This is just ludicrous. My wife drives and I ride motorcycles (British, BTW).

Of course I care about the environment and the political (i.e. wars) collateral we pay for an economy too dependent on the over consumption of fossil fuels and there are too many automobiles in the UK for such a small island, but that's the choice of the people who live here.

I do care where when this dependence on automobiles (at the sacrifice of infrastructure for other means of transport), leads to 3,000 deaths a year on the nations roads. I care that I see near misses in and around Charlbury with far too much frequency and definitely too many drivers exceeding the speed limits by not just a couple of mph but 10 and 20 mph in a residential area(!)

This is just unacceptable by anybody's standards.

I don't care that you drive a 4 X4, that's your choice. I choose to ride a bicycle, that's my choice. This isn't some Stalinist agenda.

And yet the degree of bitterness and outright hatred that has been directed at me personally (simply because I express an unpopular opinion) on this forum by individuals who would rather address a caricature of who they think I am, rather than what I actually have to say, has indeed provoked rudeness on my part.

For that, I apologise when that rudeness was directed at you. Because as I've said from the start, although we may disagree, I know you've tried to engage in this debate with a degree of openness and even better, have adjusted your behaviour as a result.

I think I'm going to leave the debate for now now that I've said my piece.