Hoo Road traffic calming: Curb the racers, not the road.
Posted by labourblogger on January 28, 2008
Peter Nielsen is Labour Candidate for Greenhill.
Working hard for Greenhill
Traffic calming proposals for Hoo Road have set off yet another set of arguments already heard all over the country where they appear. They are noisy when trucks hit them at speed. They ruin car suspension systems and shock absorbers. Motor bikes are not affected. Ambulances and fire engines are delayed when that could cost lives, not to mention the discomfort of patients on their way back to A&E, especially if they get a good shaking before the long journey to Worcester!
If you then suggest having speed cameras instead, further howls of protest are heard, chief of which is the accusation that speed cameras are really a means of raising revenue, another tax on motorists.
The real problem is cultural. Speed limits are seen in a negative light rather than as a vital safety measure. We have been so used to the car having absolute priority on the roads that anything that challenges that is seen to be ‘anti-car’. Drivers keeping strictly to speed limits are often subjected to harassment by tailgating. A minority of drivers are just plain crazy, seeming to overdose on adrenalin at the turn of the ignition key and then treating the roads as their personal race track. It is the failure of this minority to observe speed limits that sets in motion a process that often ends with the installation of traffic calming measures.
That raises questions of fairness. Why should a perfectly good road be mangled and distorted with humps, bollards and one-way ‘gates’ to curb the excesses of a crazy minority to the irritation of the responsible majority? If some motorists are not prepared to obey the speed limit, why should everybody suffer the inconvenience of physical constraints? Why should a resident living close to a road hump have to put up with the noise and pollution of cars, buses and lorries stopping, starting and clattering into them?
The fairest way must be the speed camera or radar trap. Speed limits must be seen in a positive light before someone is killed rather than after. The answer for Hoo Road is to prosecute those breaking the speed limit. Then we can all enjoy a smooth, trouble-free drive along a normal road, and the residents can have faith in the ability of the law to be enforced and live in safety.
Peter Nielsen,
28 Jan 2008.
