[jambutty]

Originally Posted by katex

Probably something to do with this Jambutty, best option within the budget for safety :-

'there is a wider argument about 'individual vs community'. Whether advantages gained by individual behaviour should take precedent over the good of the community. For instance, walking is a component in all journeys. Whether that is a 5mile walk in the morning to work or 30feet from the car to the office door. Car accidents are the number one cause of accidental death in England. 61% of all child KSI's (Killed or Seriously Injured) in road accidents 2000-2005 were child pedestrians. This is 16,020 children over a five year period. This is falling but still unacceptable. These children saw none of the benefit from the private car but suffered a serious negative consequence of its use. The same arguments apply to congestion, pollution and use of (now scarce) resources. '

If the budget allows for ‘X’ tons of road surfacing material it would be more cost effective to fill holes than build large humps. I have yet to see a hole that is as large as or larger than a hump. In any case the trend seems to be to build the humps too high so that many cars catch and damage the edges, not to mention the car underside.

Apart from all that road humps may well slow traffic down but they also cause more pollution.

The antiquated Victorian attitude of punishing the whole class for the behaviour of a few applies when the issue is to the detriment of the whole. But when it comes to the advantage of the community the powers that be seek a majority verdict.

Just exactly what does 61% killed or seriously injured mean?

Is it 1% killed and 60% injured? Or is it 60% killed and 1% injured. Or is it something in between? Lumping killed and injured in the same statistic is meaningless.

I wonder how many of those kids killed or seriously injured can be laid down at the door of the motorist and how many such events are down to the child stepping out without looking if it is safe to do so?

How many adults with kids to hand actually stop and look before crossing the road? Far too many just cross. Mothers with prams stand at the kerb and the pram is in the road.

Whatever happened to teaching kids road safety at an early age?