Are Local Authorities Acting Irresponsibly?
Bus lanes. Priority give way schemes. Unnecessary traffic lights. Traffic lights on roundabouts. Blocking roads. Constricting roads. Pelican crossings. Road humps. Kerbstone appendages. Misplaced mini roundabouts and more...
Making Life More Difficult! Local authorities, I'm sure would like to think they are acting responsibly on our behalf. However, looking at some of the things they do, this has to be called into question. Certainly, when it comes to traffic management, the types of schemes they have been introducing and spending our money on in recent years have all been guilty of compounding problems and making life more difficult for people.
Negatively Impact! Bus lanes. Priority give way schemes. Unnecessary traffic lights. Traffic lights on roundabouts. Blocking roads. Constricting roads. Pelican crossings. Road humps. Kerbstone appendages. Misplaced mini roundabouts. Schemes the local authorities seem to like, cause an array of serious problems, negative factors that impact our health and our ability of society to operate efficiently.
What Problems? Increases in... congestion, pollution, time-wasting, vehicle wear-and-tear, inconvenience, frustration, loss of earnings, stress, impediment to emergency vehicles, vehicle damage, parking problems, unnecessary stopping and starting, road discomfort, accident liability, road-rage, death and ill-health through added pollution and stress related illnesses! There may be a few more, but that's plenty enough!
Pollution Nightmare: Many of the schemes implemented force vehicles to have to stop and start repeatedly and unnecessarily, holding people up and wasting people's time, when the only need, if there is one, is to slow vehicles down. As well as being irritating and causing problems for the motorist, this type of scheme is green unfriendly, compounding pollution. There are much better ways.
Smooth Solution: In actual fact, we should be allowing traffic to flow with the minimum of acceleration and braking so as to keep emissions as low as possible. This would ultimately mean less stop start schemes and more smooth flow and smooth integration schemes, such as roundabouts, slow and go or flash and dash junctions. Implementation of this type of scheme instead would mean less fuel consumed, less pollution, less noise-pollution and less wear and tear on vehicles, and therefore, less wear and tear on your pocket, your health and our planet.
Blindly Irresponsible? Because the local authorities are blindly ignoring this fact and many others, one could accuse them of acting irresponsibly in going ahead and spending considerable amounts of money we haven't got on such schemes when much of the final outcome is negative as well as being contrary to what the public would like to see. Especially when there are better schemes on offer!
Simple? So, what is the answer? Perhaps to introduce schemes that do not cause the above problems and that are also popular with the public. Could it be that simple? No, not when the local authorities are concerned!