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| ESSAYS AND ARTICLES | |
| This collection of essays focuses on motoring vs pedestrian issues in general. It is not specifically related to Beech Croft Road, although many issues apply to it. | The essays draw from street bulletins, letters to Oxfordshire County Council and the Living Streets campaign, as well as notes for my radio appearances on the BBC. Feel free to quote, rip off, or otherwise appropriate chunks of text or even whole essays without permission. But if you do so, kindly quote www.roadwitch.org.uk as your source to increase the site's visibility. |
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GRAVESTONES OBEY SPEED LIMITS |
| Oxfordshire County Council's Health and Safety Department is so gung ho over our safety that they are felling beloved ancient beloved trees and "unsafe" gravestones. These are hypothecital risks.
Oddly enough, they dont take adequate measures against actual risks posed by cars smashing into people on the pavement. These machines continue to rip down narrow residential streets at 30 mph and punishments aren't nearly severe enough for the people who smash into others (this car was actually hit onto the pavement by another speeding motorist). What's behind this strange discrepancy? Why dont authorities kick inept or criminal motorist's butts a bit harder rather than kick over gravestones? photo: Ted Dewan |
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MOTORWAY CLASS WAR
(THIS PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION) |
| Compared to American motorways, British motorways give twice as much space for speeders and half as much space for everyone else. Does this reflect yet another example of the ghost of Britain's class system? Here's the case for how motorways endanger the lower orders to make room for the rich. | |
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WHY ADULTS HAVE STOLEN YOUR STREETS (AN ESSAY FOR CHILDREN) (THIS PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION) |
| You often hear adults say, "tut-tut, isn't it a shame you kids cant play in the streets anymore...why, when I was a child..." and then tell you about how few cars were around and how they played games in front of their own houses until dark.
Well, who the hell took the streets away from you in the first place? Then the adults have the nerve to complain when you get fat while you're stuck indoors hooked on computer games. photo: Ted Dewan |
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OI, GET OUT OF MY WAY! "ROAD TAX" AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DRIVER ENTITLEMENT (THIS PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION) |
| Motorists pay a fee every year for the privilege of keeping their cars roaring around Britain's roads. But instead of calling it a 'car tax' or an 'environmental damage tax', they call it 'road tax'. Even though this tax doesn't nearly cover the costs of building and maintaining British roads, it does suggest to many motorists that they're entitled to have primary use of public roads.
What does this mean for the psychology of British motorists, and what do they call similar taxes around the world? graphic courtesy of United Kingdom Department of Transport |
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MOTORISTS AND MOBILE PHONES: IN CYBERSPACE INSTEAD OF YOUR CAR (THIS PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION) |
| Wisely, the British Government passed a wrist-slapping law in 2004 against using a mobile phone while driving a car. But just where are you when you're speaking on a phone while driving, and why is it so different than talking to another passenger?
graphic courtesy of United Kingdom Department of Transport |
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