Labour considers rewarding drivers for sticking to speed limit

If they are planning to reward motorists for not speeding, I'd love to see what kind of reward they'd give me for not owning a car and cycling everywhere (+not speeding whilst doing it).

I expect I'll be hitting the jackpot.

How about not prosecuting motorists who are driven into for driving below the speed limit instead? That's what 2011 has in store for me...

As a non-driver, I have simply never understood what is so bloody hard about obeying the rules governing how fast one may drive a vehicle on the highway. For that reason I have never grasped the moral basis for the outrage against measures to penalise people who don't obey those rules, or the need to appease those so outraged.

However, that Labour should be currying favour with the Clarkson-for-President shower 41/2 years ahead of a general election and at a time when Milliband alternates between invisibility and gormlessness is not surprising in the slightest. This rubbish will feature in no manifesto. But it's still annoying.

Quote:

She continues, "Like most people use all forms of transport. I don't myself believe it is the job of government to be telling people what forms of transport they should use in their everyday lives.

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/maria_eagle/garston_and_halewood#travel...

she drives, and gets the train a lot then. maybe that £58 out of £25,885 in the last three years is for buses or cycling...

Quote:

She continues, "Like most people use all forms of transport. I don't myself believe it is the job of government to be telling people what forms of transport they should use in their everyday lives.

I'd counter that 'most people' don't use all forms of transport at all. Just cars.

Quote:

“If you live in a village with one street which people go through really quickly and have a kid with a propensity to run through the gate, you might quite like a speed camera.”

I don't live there. but i'd still like a speed camera, because i can understand statistics, and the difference between the public 'thinking' that speed cameras are there to raise money, and that actually 'being' the case which it demonstrably is not.

Here's a headline from the Isle of Man about an incident that happened yesterday http://www.manxradio.com/newsread.aspx?id=49442

Orignally it was thought that a motorcyclist had crashed - headlines then didn't seem to think that what was presumed to be a biker had "forced" the closure.

Let's hope the cyclists makes a full recovery

It'd never happen (I hope!), it's one of those "appeal to the Daily Mail readers" headlines that comes out whenever the Government (or the Opposition) have nothing better to say or do. Most of these headlines are completely bonkers, unworkable, impractical or all three.

What I'd like to see is a scrapping of "road tax" (yes, I know it's not called that but then I don't read the Daily Mail!) and replace it with a properly thought through road pricing system. Drive more = pay more, simple. Provided that it was balanced with a well thought out public transport system, that would cut car use dramatically.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't grab headlines in the same way so politicians won't do it.

What a clueless decision. Have these guys actually looked at the results of what happens when you reward people for behaviour in this way? The first thing they do is assume that the behaviour they are getting rewarded for is undesirable to do. After all why would they be getting rewarded to do it?

There's nothing but worrying news coming out lately from the government about the future of cycling. Clearly they are being ill advised and cycling organisations need to step up their game to prevent bad decisions being made.

It's a joke. Too much brandy in Dame Anna Neagle's left-over Christmas pud, surely! I hope if I ever become a politician I'm always in opposition and never in government - it's all so much easier!!!

Perhaps I should be rewarded for not burgling my neighbour's house.

One key issue is that people tend to get a skewed perspective of a "safe" speed when they are behind the wheel of a modern car. If you are on a push bike or trying to walk across a road you get a very different perspective. Unfortunately driving seems to be an activity that reduces empathy, ever encouraging isolation and selfishness.

Wow, this could be right out of Brave New World: we'll track you everywhere you go, but that's OK because one of you may win a prize. I prefer cameras that only track people breaking a very specific and well-defined law, and even then I'm only OK with that because so many people are breaking it.

Regarding the general pull-back on actually making motorists responsible for a few of the negative effects they have on the wider world: this is exactly how modern politics works. You don't set out policies to achieve a considered goal anymore, you tinker with ideas while in opposition until you find some that will appeal to the great unwashed public out there, who themselves have been educated not to have convictions anymore. Then, when you eventually get into power, you tell the civil service to make these inane policies work, and those that are affordable become laws. The problems with that are (a) it's a moronic form of mismanagement and (b) specious crapola like this "War on Motorists" meme shifts society to an ever more reactionary position.