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Forum: Paul Smith, RIP Topic: Condolences |
| alanw |
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Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 01:19
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Replies: 179
Views: 497735
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| I have just caught up with this tragic news and can only wish Claire and all Paul's family the greatest love and support for the future and the very happiest memories of the past. Paul was simply an inspiration even to us on the other side of the world and a beacon of common sense and intelligence a... |
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Forum: Speed, Safety, Driving and The Law Topic: FATIGUE KILLS! You Could get 14 years for it too. |
| alanw |
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Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 09:36
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Replies: 36
Views: 15665
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| I agree with other posters that there needs to be a lot more information on how deceptive sleepiness can be. It happened to me and took me completely by surprise. I had driven my normal Monday morning 3 hour commute to the city and was stuck on the motorway in stop/start crawling morning traffic. It... |
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Forum: Pages Topic: Why do drivers speed? |
| alanw |
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Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 22:58
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Replies: 28
Views: 144240
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| It's interesting as a possible reason for why rigid enforcement of speed limits has increased injury crashes in New Zealand. It's also consistent with Hans Moderman's work which indicates removing bureaucratic controls (explicit and implied by engineering) improves safety outcomes by transfering res... |
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Forum: General Chat Topic: Humberside Traffic Police |
| alanw |
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Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 20:46
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Replies: 7
Views: 6433
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| Quote: Cops killed a dozen people doing fast chases here a year or so ago. Now they have been banned from doing them. A lot of those killed were innocent people hit by the runaway car. In that case they were not killed by the police. A quibble that did not impress the loved ones of those killed. Th... |
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Forum: Road Safety, Speed Camera and Policy News Topic: Dyslexia 'worse for drivers than drink' |
| alanw |
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Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 20:36
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Replies: 9
Views: 5945
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| The unasked question seems to be how many people are being prosecuted for drunk driving when they are more functionally capable than other sober drivers? |
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Forum: General Chat Topic: Humberside Traffic Police |
| alanw |
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Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 09:45
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Replies: 7
Views: 6433
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| Cops killed a dozen people doing fast chases here a year or so ago. Now they have been banned from doing them. A lot of those killed were innocent people hit by the runaway car. It is plain journalistic dumb just to think about whether the cop is driving safely. It doesn't matter how well he is driv... |
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Forum: Improving Road Safety Topic: Alternative to Police discretion |
| alanw |
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Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 21:50
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Replies: 37
Views: 40598
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| I think we're all in agreement about the idiocy of such speed traps. We're only disagreeing about solutions. I chose that example for a particular reason. It was my first encounter with moronic road policing, aged about 18, 40 years ago. Putting discretion back in the hands of police will not fix t... |
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Forum: Improving Road Safety Topic: Alternative to Police discretion |
| alanw |
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Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 09:23
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Replies: 37
Views: 40598
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| In urban situations - 30mph speed limit in the UK - there's some need to control speed on the basis of a preponderance of improbable risks. It's these sorts of probability that contribute to speed choice based on hazard density rather than any specific individual hazard. I don't think accounting fo... |
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Forum: Improving Road Safety Topic: Alternative to Police discretion |
| alanw |
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Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 02:57
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Replies: 37
Views: 40598
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| I disagree entirely. The defence could and would argue that the standard of safety required to be met is not absolute, but is compatible with generally accepted lawful standards. For example, see the suggestion I made above that a defendent could reasonably make regarding safety of driving at 90 mg/... |
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Forum: Improving Road Safety Topic: Alternative to Police discretion |
| alanw |
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Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 04:01
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Replies: 37
Views: 40598
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| We have to accept that, statistically, certain behaviours can be judged unsafe and illegal, even if a small proportion of such behaviours are not unsafe. This is a very serious mistake and is the source of a very great deal of injustice. Typically it is used by bureaucrats and politicians to exploi... |
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Forum: Improving Road Safety Topic: Alternative to Police discretion |
| alanw |
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Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 03:46
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Replies: 37
Views: 40598
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| Actually, I am totally perplexed in trying to understand your logic, Peter. You seem to be saying that the only possible (and rational) determination of what is safe is what is declared to be so by some bureaucratic process - eg in setting arbitrary speed limits. Is that really what you mean? It see... |
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Forum: Improving Road Safety Topic: Alternative to Police discretion |
| alanw |
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Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 02:03
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Replies: 37
Views: 40598
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| I couched my proposal in the form that the authorities can make whatever traffic driving regulations they like, but if the defendent can show his/her actions were safe then he/she cannot be convicted. In that form, the burden of proof does fall on the defendent. The advantage is that it disables all... |
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Forum: Improving Road Safety Topic: Alternative to Police discretion |
| alanw |
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Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 01:31
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Replies: 37
Views: 40598
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| I think the point really is that the courts are not very well placed to make an expert judgement about a road situation. They are not expert drivers, and we don't even have an expert driver profession that could be used to advise the courts. Perhaps if we did have an expert driver profession that w... |
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Forum: Improving Road Safety Topic: Alternative to Police discretion |
| alanw |
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Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 01:23
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Replies: 37
Views: 40598
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| So, under Alan's proposed system, would someone driving at 60 mph along a residential street be prosecuted? And if so, how could his driving be identified as relatively unsafe, except by saying that he was driving at 60 mph along a residential street? I envisage to prove you were driving safely you... |
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Forum: Improving Road Safety Topic: Alternative to Police discretion |
| alanw |
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Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 21:32
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Replies: 37
Views: 40598
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| The bottom line for me is, if bureaucrats can't prove in court driving was dangerous, why should we let them assume it? Regarding the other comments, there are already prosecutions for dangerous driving etc. which do not involve simple numeric measurements and are decided by the courts. Most offence... |
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Forum: General Chat Topic: Australian Statistics |
| alanw |
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Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 01:26
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Replies: 2
Views: 3099
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Forum: Pages Topic: Conspiracy |
| alanw |
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Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 01:20
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Replies: 46
Views: 197493
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| I agree with many of the points raised here, but basically saying that speed isn't an important factor in accidents is crazy talk. In a collision kinetic energy is equal to the product of the mass of the object and the square of its velocity squared First and trivial, you've squared velocity twice.... |
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Forum: Campaigning Topic: Destroy the enemy with his own facts |
| alanw |
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Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 21:34
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Replies: 2
Views: 5187
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| No, but the time frames are relatively short so it is most likely variations in traffic volume within the same jurisdiction are relatively small. There is no reason I know of to speculate that any significant change to volumes onset at the same time as the changes to enforcement policies. Normalisat... |
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Forum: Campaigning Topic: Destroy the enemy with his own facts |
| alanw |
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Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 08:36
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Replies: 2
Views: 5187
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| IMHO by far the best weapon is the unvarnished truth and the pure and simple fact that "Speed Kills" campaigns have failed. I have presented the evidence from New Zealand here and it is quite uncontestable: http://www.fastandsafe.org/site.aspx/Pages/Facts/TicketQuotas/index Speeding fines are up exp... |
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Forum: Improving Road Safety Topic: Improve speed and safety by reducing reaction times |
| alanw |
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Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 23:04
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Replies: 8
Views: 11472
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| Humans notoriously get tired, bored, distracted with monotonous chores like monitoring the car ahead. Machines do not. Use the machine for what it is good at and the human for what you are good at. The car ahead isn't usually the problem. It's the car, truck or pedestrian suddenly crossing your pat... |
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