Message from Leon. I have decided to change the format for TC.com for a while in recognition of the impact that the Climate Change agenda is having on transport policy thinking and plans for action. I have posted more detail on this new approach in ‘about’ and start a new series of blogs as the countdown to the Copenhagen UN Climate Change Summit begins…
Day two: Sorry folks, but contrary to previous claims, it turns out that the world was not saved by PM Gordon Brown and his old New Labour government when they agreed to spend countless £billions of UK taxpayers’ money on bailing out the ‘merchant bankers’ who plunged us into a global financial crisis. Go here for Gord’s great gaff on that front. Now it transpires that far from being saved, worse is to come. “We have fewer than fifty days to save our planet from catastrophe”. Says the UK Prime Minister. Go here to read what the BBC have to say about this or see and hear Gordon deliver his stark warning in person about the imminent prospect in Britain of “frequent droughts and a rising wave of floods.” And, of course, as all motorised transport is said to accelerate global warming and the end of life on earth, there is rising pressure from many quarters to stop us all using it as much as possible. I will be reporting on responses to these pressures during the ongoing countdown to Copenhagen. However, for now, you might want to see a different view of these events from a scurrilous wag who has what ever it takes to suggest that our Gord may yet again fail to save us and the world – because he secretly has other things on his mind – like saving his political career. Brown: “World has 50 days to Save my Career”. But crucially, and perhaps unfortunately for the credibility of our Prime Minister’s grave warning about imminent and certain doom from the globe heating up year on year, even the BBC has acknowledged that actually it is not. It also turns out that the jolly Hockey Stick graph that the mega fan of Global Warming theory All Gore got a Nobel prize for promoting – to ‘prove’ that the world was warming at an unprecedented and catastrophic rate – may be a tad more dodgy than jolly. For those who like to consider scientifically credible evidence about such issues as well as opinion, some inconvenient truths have recently emerged that warrant a closer look. In essence it is suggested that the bent tip of the hockey stick showing a dramatic rise in global temperatures is derived from a bent use of data available. 
The graph (left) shows the ‘hockey stick’ version in red – with a seemingly more valid and reliable version in black. This shows no significant warming recently – which is well illustrated by the widely accepted fact among scientists that global temperatures have not risen at all in the last ten years. Indeed this is the main reason why you rarely hear the term Global Warming these days as it has morphed into Climate Change – which is an undeniable factor on a planet that has had an ever changing climate ever since it began cooling after a very big bang. A summary of how these truths were revealed can be seen here in an intriguingly informative post from Bishop Hill. In a nutshell, it turns out that after ten years in which the scientific community was prevented from examining the full original data from which the hockey stick shaped graph was created by a chap called Briffa, it is now out there for all to see. And what some have seen and suggested is that Briffa may have used a bent method to bend his graphic display of global temperatures from a straight line graph into an image of a jolly hockey-stick to show the world how soon we were all going to fry…
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Posted in About, What’s happening
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Labels: banker, catastrophe, climate change, Copenhagen, financial crisis, floods, frequent droughts, global warming, Gordon Brown, hockey stick, New Labour, political career, save the world, stark warning, taxpayer, UN summit
20th October 2009
by Leon Mannings
Revelations by the Audit Office add fuel to an increasingly heated debate about the value of speed cameras and lower limits to the critical task of cutting UK road casualties. Latest figures show that the Treasury gains £10,000 per hour everyday from speed camera PCNs, and that the number of cameras in Britain has trebled in six years. Nevertheless, during that time the UK’s place in casualty reduction tables has slumped from near the top to 11th out of 23 other countries for pedestrian deaths. Meanwhile, DFT figures show that top causal factor for casualties is not speeding, but “driver error/reaction”, which is attributed to 60% of all accidents and includes ‘failing to look properly’ and ‘misjudging a turn’ and not speed. These figures also show that only 5% of all accidents and 15% of fatal crashes are caused by ‘exceeding the speed limit’. Critics of current plans include a rising number of road safety campaigners who suggest that cameras are not the answer. Nevertheless Government plans to expand the number of UK roads ‘policed’ in this way. The latest plans include 19 sets of cameras above a six-mile section of the M20 and M25. In theory, according to the Highways Agency, this is to help ‘regulate’ traffic flow. But TC notes that motorways remain by far the safest roads in Britain in terms of casualty rates, and that links between exceeding speed limits on urban roads and evidence of corresponding casualty problems are not always as clear as protagonists of greater enforcement suggest. For example TC sees that the Police in Cambridge clocked 32,000 drivers exceeding a 30 mph speed limit in one week on a single city centre road – which amounted to 75% of all drivers during that week. Predictably this prompted calls for urgent steps – and yet no account was mentioned in this report of the salient fact that not one accident or casualty of any severity occurred as a result of the 32,000 instances of speed limit excess. Doubtless this debate will continue raging on…
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Posted in About, What’s happening
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Labels: 30 mph, Audit Office, Cambridge, cash, casualties, DfT, driver error/reaction, exceeding the speed limit, Government plans, Highways Agency, M20, M25, motorways, Police, road safety, safety campaigners, speed camera, speed limit, UK roads
9th May 2009
by Leon Mannings
A “very dangerous” and seemingly barmy plan to leave potholes unrepaired to act as “natural traffic-calming” in the Essex village of Navestock, has focused nationwide media attention on controversial proposals by Parish Councillor Richard Folkson. But, in a letter under ‘More’ below, the councillor at the centre of the media brouhaha denies being the driver of plans that a retired policeman resident says are “very dangerous”, and especially for “the elderly, cyclists, motorcyclists and horse riders”. Mainstream news include reports from the BBC, and Telegraph . A range of more robust comments from the British Blogosphere can be found here. Most accounts imply that Cllr Folkson is some sort of deranged yokel – and fuels this entertaining notion with quotes from retired police officer Roy Tyzack. The ex-cop is reported as saying that it “beggars belief that the people who are supposed to be acting on behalf of the parishioners think it a good idea to put people at risk”. Potholes are “very dangerous” and, “we have a great deal of them”, he adds. However, although this ‘local’ story has made national news on the back of statements by local councillors that are easily sensationalised as barmy, most media coverage is wide of the mark at the centre of this sorry saga and a generally underreported scandal. Local authority failures to repair potholes are increasingly prompting court ruling against local authorities who are breaching their duties of care as latest BBC report of a cyclist’s injuries and compensation highlights. What is less clear is that such waste is irrespective of whether this is ‘just’ a dereliction of governance duty, or the result of a hidden policy agenda to substitute appropriate action to maintain roads with a program of government inaction. Intriguingly, the Guardian and organs of similar tone have averted their output from this issue whereas, Massey of the Mail highlights the extent of these costs here, and David Williams features other angles on the matter here . Correspondingly, TC suspects that the main cause of problems for Folkson, and the central issue here, is not that he originated the idea that local authorities should leave potholes unrepaired – but that he has been exquisitely naive in voicing what many transport planners think to themselves – and use to decide what happens in practice on UK roads. As other reports reveal, the scourge of potholes is widespread throughout the UK highways network and can cause serious injury – especially to vulnerable road users including pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. TC also suggests that the key reason that this tiny Parish pothole affair has made national news is that it highlights a nationwide scandal that is all too familiar to the great British public. For those who are bothered enough about potholes to report them there are websites to make this easier. One of the first of these was created by the British Motorcyclists Federation BMF who have had some success in prompting repairs here , or you might use fixmystreet.com. Finally, TC notes that It is also clear to some of us that local authorities are allowing roads to be surfaced to such a poor standard that they become potholed in a far shorter period than is reasonable in the 21st century AND at great inconvenience and cost to UK road users. Read More »
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Posted in About, What’s happening
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Labels: BMF, cyclist, David Williams, Essex, Essex village of Navestock, governance, government action, government inaction, hidden agenda, injuries, motorcyclist, Navestock, pothole, Ray Massey, Richard Folkson, road calming, road repairs, Roy Tyzack, traffic calming
21st April 2009
by Leon Mannings
US President Barrack Obama flew into London this week on a well publicised trip to help UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown in his latest move to ‘save the world’ from stalling bankers.
But, as Transport Crucible.com can now reveal in a world exclusive, the main purpose of his first UK visit was not attendance of the G20 summit with Brown and other heads of state as widely reported. His arrival in Air Force One at Stanstead airport on the afternoon of March 31st, coincided with a media blackout on coverage of his real first engagement. This was as top secret mission to covertly attend a rally in Trafalgar Square and a mass ride of over 4,500 scooter and motorcycle riders round Parliament Square that was organised by the No-To-Bike-Parking-Tax (NTBPT) campaign group. The protest rally attracted a large crowd and the subsequent ride involved over 4,500 riders on scooters, mopeds and motorcycles of every shape and size as reported in the article from The Sun 03.04.09, (see below). It can also be revealed that the campaign group and media moguls had agreed to keep the US president’s support for the NTBPT fight against a trial tax on scooter and motorbike parking a closely guarded secret until the summit was over.
Now it can be revealed that unconfirmed reports suggest that Obama was privately ‘outraged’ on hearing that the richest council in Britain is trying to prevent the poorest members of society entering the centre of London on scooters and motorbikes – which are increasingly recognised as a cheaper and greener alternative to cars and overcrowded commuter services – and that the council is trying to price the poor away by imposing a new daily parking tax on anyone using powered two wheelers as a way to get to work and help to cut London’s chronic congestion problems. It is also understood that Obama was privately more upset by the bike tax trial as he knew that the solution to the world’s financial crisis was in the safe hands of Britain’s PM Brown – and that G20 leaders would happily borrow a few trillion pounds to save the world again anyway.
Read More »
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Posted in About, What’s happening
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Labels: Air Force One, Barrack Obama, G20, Gordon Brown, Parliament Square, Stanstead airport, Trafalgar Square, UK Prime Minister, US President, Westminster bike parking tax
5th April 2009
by Leon Mannings
Emotions swamp objectivity again over the intensely contentious issue-mix of speed limits, money-making cameras and ‘improving road safety’. The latest blasts of emotively charged claims, reactions and ‘news’ are sparked by the government’s plan to lower the national speed limit from 60 to 50 mph. Roads safety Minister, Jim Fitzpatrick is “sure that the vast majority of motorists would support the proposals”, according to The Times. But, as the plan also involves a nationwide spread of average speed cameras – with automated fine issuing facilities to ‘monitor’ driver’s speed over “distances of up to six miles”, TC is not so sure of such widespread support – or that it is necessarily deserved – especially when the evidence of speed as a contributory factor to fatal or serious incidents is viewed with more objectivity than emotion or commercial interest. 
Mainstream ‘news’ on whether a blanket of new lower 50 mph limits will be the blow for road safety it’s protagonist claim, and thereby a “sign of civilisation” or a “fascist proposal”, or even a “Greens’ Plot” can be found here and here . Key facts from the latest DfT Annual Report on Road Casualties are these.
“Exceeding the speed limit was attributed to 3% of cars involved in accidents, while travelling too fast for conditions was attributed to 6%. For fatal accidents these figures are 7% and 10% respectively.” Whereas, “Driver/rider error or reaction” was attributed as a contributory factor in 66% of all fatalities. Other views of this issue mix are currently flying around the British blogosphere and many are in stark con contrast to the Minister’s assessment of public opinion. So, albeit for adults only, a taste of these can be seen here. Reference to hard evidence on the causes of traffic casualties is essential for all who are serious about improving road safety. The collection and publication of such data is however a very recent development – which only started after the UK began loosing its former lead in casualty reduction in contrast neighbouring nations. A more extensive analysis of this issue mix can be found in two previous articles by Leon Mannings. The first was written for the leading journal for UK Transport Professionals LTT, and the second was one of an ongoing series of columns for the motorcyclists’ magazine, Motorcycle Sport and Leisure aka MSL. Read More »
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Posted in About, What’s happening
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Labels: 50 mph limit, 60 mph limit, average speed cameras, civilisation, DfT, exceeding speed limit, Green, green plot, Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour MP, Leon Mannings, LTT, Motorcycle Sport and Leisure, Road Casualties Great Britain, road safety, Roads safety Minister, Speed Cameras, UK National speed limit
12th March 2009
by Leon Mannings
Message from Leon. I have decided to change the format for TC.com for a while in recognition of the impact that the Climate Change agenda is having on transport policy thinking and plans for action. I have posted more detail on this new approach in ‘about’ and start a new series of blogs as the countdown to the Copenhagen UN Climate Change Summit begins… 
The graph (left) shows the ‘hockey stick’ version in red – with a seemingly more valid and reliable version in black. This shows no significant warming recently – which is well illustrated by the widely accepted fact among scientists that global temperatures have not risen at all in the last ten years. Indeed this is the main reason why you rarely hear the term Global Warming these days as it has morphed into Climate Change – which is an undeniable factor on a planet that has had an ever changing climate ever since it began cooling after a very big bang. A summary of how these truths were revealed can be seen here in an intriguingly informative post from Bishop Hill. In a nutshell, it turns out that after ten years in which the scientific community was prevented from examining the full original data from which the hockey stick shaped graph was created by a chap called Briffa, it is now out there for all to see. And what some have seen and suggested is that Briffa may have used a bent method to bend his graphic display of global temperatures from a straight line graph into an image of a jolly hockey-stick to show the world how soon we were all going to fry…
