Well, really!

I'm On The Phone

So, from today the penalty for using a mobile phone at the wheel is doubled to £60, with three bonus points. No doubt some drivers will be sufficiently apprehensive to resist the temptation, but I wonder if it will really have much effect. It relies on the driver being seen using the phone by a police officer, and then the officer bothering to stop the vehicle. But these days I almost never see a police patrol car. I do see plenty of drivers on the phone; it's not just the white van driver, but everyone from the artic driver negotiating a mini roundabout to the bimbette in the beat-up Peugeot 306 discussing last night's entertainment.

There's an interesting piece by Tom Clarke on the Channel 4 News blog, on the level of distraction caused by a phone call, measured in Tom's test on a simulator at the Transport Research Laboratory.

Some time ago I found myself being followed in the outside lane of the M25 by a well-heeled middle-aged lady in a Mercedes, who was on the phone for 10 or more minutes. She'd come to my attention as she was driving rather too close to my back bumper for comfort, and I spent a fair portion of my time looking in the rear view mirror. After a while I realized that she'd also lit a cigarette, which she was manipulating between mouth, window and steering wheel with her right hand while keeping the phone to her ear with the left. All the time she talked, laughed and bobbed her well-coiffured hair, and I was glad when I had the chance to pull in and let her pass.

Ken Listens to Cyclists

In the latest CTC newsletter comes the good news that Ken has listened to the deluge of complains and criticism, and has decided against his plan announced a week or so ago to require London cyclists to register their bikes and display car-style number plates.

Ken's U-Turn: One week (and many complaints) after announcing his plans to force cyclists in London to have number plates, Ken Livingstone has shelved the idea. He agreed with CTC's concerns over the prohibitive cost of such a scheme and now wants to launch a 'Share the road' campaign which will encourage all road users to obey traffic regulations and advise them of the penalties for not doing so.

Nice to find some common sense still sloshing around in this crazy world.

Ken Plans London Cycle Cameras

The CTC – the 70,000 member organisation for cyclists in the UK and Ireland – reports that London Mayor Ken Livingstone announced on LBC Radio this week that he plans to compel all cyclists entering the capital to be registered to a particular bicycle, and for that bike to display a registration plate that can be monitored by cameras. He hopes to use the system to catch cyclists who cycle on the pavement and ride through red lights. [Not, as far as I can see, a huge problem, despite Nigel Havers' absurd opinion].

A CTC press release rightly criticizes the wheeze, describing it as "an ill thought through and completely unworkable idea that risks reversing the current growth in London cycling."

Only a few months ago, Ken was trumpeting: "Cycling is the fastest, cheapest, most healthy and environmentally friendly way to get around London, which is why we are investing almost £20m this year to improve cycle facilities in the capital. The number of cyclists on our roads has doubled since 2000 and we've already exceeded our cycling targets five years ahead of schedule... I will now be looking at setting tougher targets so we can continue to build on this success and encourage many more cyclists in London."

CTC Campaigns and Policy Manager, Roger Geffen, said: "A registration scheme would be an extremely costly and bureaucratic system that would undoubtedly put many people off cycling. A problem with errant cyclists undeniably exits, but pales in road safety terms when compared with dangerous drivers. A better way to tackle cyclists’ bad behaviour is through provision of good cycle training."

Luckily I don't cycle in London, but from this distance this looks like a hair-brained and very expensive scheme that will discourage all but the keenest cyclists, add to the growing burden of personal surveillance, and achieve very little. Well, really!

4 x 4 + 40

So the Chancellor is going to crack down hard on the 'gas-guzzling' vehicles, and on 4x4s in particular, that push out the most CO2 and occupy most space on our roads (and pavements). A new top Vehicle Excise Duty rate of £210 – up just £40 from the previous top rate – is sure to discourage people from unnecessarily buying such things. Isn't it? Friends of the Earth had called for a top rate of at least £600, which would seem to be much closer to the mark, discouraging posers without being too expensive, in the overall scheme of things, for people like farmers and boatbuilders who need big vehicles for their businesses. And the tax only applies to new vehicles, not existing ones, which is silly.

It's unlike Gordon to miss an opportunity to raise a tax, when public opinion is probably on his side for a change. Perhaps Mr '2-Jags' Prescott had a word with him...

[And yes, I know it's been a couple of weeks since the last post. I was away a for few days, and inevitably busy when I came back, and there's so much going on with the politicos that it's hard to know where to begin]

Danger! School Run

Talking of double standards, as we were, it sometimes seems the most dangerous place to be a pedestrian is near a school at going-home time. The other day I was almost run over on the pavement, as I walked past the local junior school, by a HUGE 4x4 behaving like a demented rally car. The middle-aged bimbette in the driving seat seemed oblivious not only to me but more importantly to the stream of youngsters pouring through the school gates and weaving their way between the parked buses and across the road.

Still, her little darlings were already safely strapped in to her tank, so it didn't matter...

Bikes and Horses

Went out on the tourer this afternoon, for the first time this year. In fact for the first time for a few months as I was busy on other things in late summer and autumn last year. The weather was good for a fair weather cyclist like me – cold but a little sunny. But my legs are bad!

On the way home I rounded a bend at a reasonable speed to find myself nose to nose with a horse. Its mate was the other side of the road. If I'd been in a car I might not have been able to stop and they almost certainly wouldn't have heard me. A plummy voice said "Sowweee" – but didn't encourage her horse to change course – and I squeezed between it and the hedge as I searched for a low enough gear to get going again...