Surprisingly poor piece from Alastair Dalton which starts well, but then descends into victim blaming. Also fails to note properly that road safety has increased for vehicle occupants, but not for pedestrians and cyclists...
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Inside Transport: The global killer which claims 1.25 million lives a year
(3 posts)-
Posted 8 years ago #
-
One detail that is absent from this article is the move by enlightened authorities to get rid of their road safety team, and create a road danger reduction one. Many CCE listers will immediately recognise the key difference in the direction taken. Instead of making the assumption that crashes are inevitable (accident thinking) they focus instead on hazard removal, and if that is not directly achievable, the risks are managed down.
An example of hazard removal might be banning left turns by large vehicles where the drivers have to force an inversion of the normal priority of other traffic by swinging wide to make the turn (into oncoming traffic/driving through traffic - with priority to travel straight ahead - in the nearside lane). An alternative route would typically be provided with 'safer turns. Risk reduction may be more subtle, but might include measures to force down speeds, or position the road users in such a way that they have to be looking directly at the hazard of someone coming the other way as the main focus, before they move off onto a collision course.
Lambeth was the first Council I believe to have a Road Danger Reduction Officer, closely followed by the City of London. As yet we have no such posts in Scotland, I just wonder if Edinburgh or Glasgow with make the first move, or will they be beaten by one of the less prominent authorities?
Posted 8 years ago # -
The one comment on that piece is at least sensible:
harry smith
12:01 PM on 30/12/2016
"In my view, one of the biggest dangers faced by children is failing to properly look before crossing the road because of distractions" This is simply not true. The biggest risk to children is drivers going too fast in tons of metal. Most drivers admit often speeding, they don't even slow down when there's an ice cream van. This entire piece is an incredibly nasty, hateful piece of victim-blaming. It's an exercise in deflection. If you don't believe me then count how many times the word "drivers" appears in this article.Posted 8 years ago #
Reply
You must log in to post.
posts
