Dangers of road ‘safety’

BECAUSE it’s been reported that Bath council are planning to scrap 20mph speed limits, Paul Moody reasons that it’s unfortunate Manchester introduced them before any real effectiveness was considered (‘More risk on 20mph roads,’ Viewpoints, January 6).

Couldn’t his logic apply to the likes of the Trafford Centre and online shopping? Ahead of their creation, did anyone think to create a proper network of roads/ footpaths to cope with increased traffic?

Indeed, hasn’t pretty much all of Britain’s so-called progress been a case of putting the ‘cart before the horse,’ or not looking before leaping?

In reasoning that, ‘a significant rise in fatal injuries’ is because pedestrians ‘assume it’s safer and therefore take greater subconscious risks,’ the other side of the coin is: Because drivers have a whole raft of safety measures to stop them being killed, they also take greater risks? Making people feel safer and therefore encouraging them to engage in riskier behaviour, is known as the Peltzman Effect.

To put drivers in their place, economist Gordon Tullock had the idea that, instead of mandating safety belts, it would save far more lives if a large spike (the ‘Tullock Spike’) were installed in the centre of steering columns: It would make drivers more acutely aware of the danger of driving too fast.

There should be no reason for us not to have all bar emergency vehicles fitted with speed limiters.

When we have driverless cars, it could be safe for pedestrians to step in front of traffic without being killed.

Might today’s children see Utopia before climate change wins the war?