6 February 2008
Speed humps letter – unexpurgated version
Letters to the editor of the Eastern Daily Press are frequently cut, ostensibly to get more of them in. But this policy can easily prevent a writer from getting the full force of an argument across. It is especially annoying when a reader writes a full response to someone else’s argument, and only part of it is used.
Malcolm Heymer, of Dereham, recently suffered this fate in an exchange about speed humps. He has given me permission to publish the full version here:
""In response to D Denham’s letter in favour of speed humps (Jan 31), it is certainly true that they reduce speeds. Whether they produce an overall benefit to road safety is another matter altogether.""In the sorts of roads where humps are installed, road accidents are rare and subject to random variations from year to year. Humps are often installed after an upward blip in accidents, which would have fallen again anyway, with or without the humps. In addition, drivers try to avoid roads with humps when they can, so traffic often diverts to other routes. Claims about the safety benefits of road humps do not take account of these factors, which is why the claimed accident reductions are not reflected in county-wide or national casualty figures.
""Speed humps do not just slow emergency vehicles, but can also cause accidents. In a recent case in Bolton, a police van took off after hitting a hump, hit an oncoming car and crashed into a garden, injuring six people who were standing in the garden, including an eight-year-old boy. Miraculously no-one was killed, but it could have been a disaster.
""I am aware of the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) report claiming that speed humps do not damage vehicles. What must be realised is that TRL conducted its research on road humps constructed with great care to comply with the required dimensions. This does not happen in the real world, where humps that are supposed to be identical can differ in height and shape of the approach ramps. Humps do not just damage vehicles but also people, especially those with back problems or with suspected spinal injuries being carried in ambulances.
""There are alternatives to humps where speeds are too high. These include types of “psychological” traffic calming and the shared-space idea, where the segregation of vehicles and other road users is deliberately blurred to make everyone take more care.
""It is possible to reduce traffic speeds in residential areas without punishing the majority of responsible drivers for the actions of a minority.""
Bishops jump on to carbon bandwagon
Watching the Church of England jump on to a bandwagon where angels fear to tread is nothing new. This year it’s climate change, of course.
It’s Lent – time to fast - and the Bishops of London and Liverpool have come up with a splendid green idea: why not give up carbon for Lent? Of course if we did that we’d all die immediately, since we are carbon-based life forms, but never mind, we can give up some of it.
The EDP, of course, reports this enthusiastically and comes up with a few tips, many of which make sense and some of which are really trivial and silly. For instance, “when you do drive, drive skilfully” – as opposed to the rest of the year, when we can drive like idiots, I suppose. Driving skilfully apparently involves “minimising the amount of breaking (sic) and accelerating”: not sure about the accelerating, which is often a useful safety feature, but I certainly try to avoid breaking things when I drive.
We are also advised, of course, to “keep speeds down”, which means that Norfolk roads will be full of crawling fellow-Anglicans for 40 days. This could be good for developing spiritual control, so I probably shouldn’t grumble.
But why the Church has to get involved in all this, I don’t know. Energy-saving and avoidance of waste are praiseworthy, but those of us who do our best in these areas do not take kindly to being treated like primary school children, and those who couldn’t care less are even further alienated.
Christianity is about transformation on a spiritual level. This must translate to lifestyle alterations, but by starting with the effects and omitting the causes, the Church has once again presented itself as paddling in the shallows instead of plunging into the deep. As for walking on water, forget it.
Maybe it's not surprising that where baptism is concerned, Anglicans go for sprinkling instead of total immersion.