Do *You* Hate Motorists? Take The Test

"Brimstone" wrote in message
...
Mr Benn wrote:
"Just zis Guy, you know?" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 1 May 2009 10:54:45 +0100, "Mr Benn" %%%@%.%% wrote:

if a school teaching safe cycling and not at the same
time reminding the parents that the biggest risk to their children
is them and their friends in their cars, then we are back to the
1970s era of the Tufty Club and training our kids in car
supremacism.

Do you mean the Green Cross Code?

No, I mean the Tufty Club.

I see. Don't you think that educating children in road safety issues
is a good idea?

Road safety is one thing, indoctrinating people that the car reigns
supreme is something different.

I bet you believe that the Green Cross Man was a satanist

Mr Benn wrote:
"Brimstone" wrote in message
...
Mr Benn wrote:
"Just zis Guy, you know?" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 1 May 2009 10:54:45 +0100, "Mr Benn" %%%@%.%% wrote:

if a school teaching safe cycling and not at the same
time reminding the parents that the biggest risk to their
children is them and their friends in their cars, then we are
back to the 1970s era of the Tufty Club and training our kids in
car supremacism.

Do you mean the Green Cross Code?

No, I mean the Tufty Club.

I see. Don't you think that educating children in road safety
issues is a good idea?

Road safety is one thing, indoctrinating people that the car reigns
supreme is something different.

I bet you believe that the Green Cross Man was a satanist

No, but you obviously believe everything you're told.

"Mr Benn" %%%@%.%% wrote in message
news
I bet you believe that the Green Cross Man was a satanist

Well, he was on the Dark Side.

On Fri, 1 May 2009 11:39:29 +0100, "Mr Benn" %%%@%.%% wrote:

if a school teaching safe cycling and not at the same
time reminding the parents that the biggest risk to their children is
them and their friends in their cars, then we are back to the 1970s
era of the Tufty Club and training our kids in car supremacism.
Do you mean the Green Cross Code?
No, I mean the Tufty Club.
I see. Don't you think that educating children in road safety issues is a
good idea?

Whatever gave you that idea?

Do you think teaching children that road safety equates to
unconditional deference to motor traffic is likely to improve the
driving attitude of future generations?

I suggest you read Hillman and Whitelegg's /One False Move/.

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/urc | http://www.nohelmetlaw.org.uk/

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

Newsgroup may contain nuts.

On Fri, 1 May 2009 13:35:19 +0100, "Clive George"
wrote:

I bet you believe that the Green Cross Man was a satanist
Well, he was on the Dark Side.

A great Bill Bailey joke, when Prowse auditioned for the voice part:
"The forrce is straang in this one, moi 'andsome".

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/urc | http://www.nohelmetlaw.org.uk/

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

Newsgroup may contain nuts.

On Fri, 1 May 2009 12:44:21 +0100, "Mr Benn" %%%@%.%% wrote:

I bet you believe that the Green Cross Man was a satanist

Open goal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Prowse

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/urc | http://www.nohelmetlaw.org.uk/

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

Newsgroup may contain nuts.

I bet you believe that the Green Cross Man was a satanist


Or Darth Vader at the very least.

On Fri, 01 May 2009 12:14:13 +0100, Roger Thorpe
wrote:

No, I mean the Tufty Club.
Blimey, that's a big dose of nostalgia.

Oh yes. I still have some publicity materials from back then, my dad
was heavily involved in occupational and road safety (member of RoSPA
and the local occupational safety association, cycling proficiency
trainer, RAC/ACU event judge, ran safe driving events and all sorts)
and I was on a thing called the "junior accident prevention
committee", sponsored by RoSPA - we seemed to spend most of our time
playing "spot the pothole". That was a /very/ long time ago.

That's made me a little sad, though, because I remember how much I
miss the lovely John Milne (http://www.adinjc.org.uk/aims.html). He
was a really nice guy, a lot like John Franklin - very thoughtful,
calm, and unjudgmental. A thoroughly decent man.

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/urc | http://www.nohelmetlaw.org.uk/

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

Newsgroup may contain nuts.

In ,
Just zis Guy, you know? tweaked the Babbage-Engine
to tell us:
On Fri, 1 May 2009 13:35:19 +0100, "Clive George"
wrote:

I bet you believe that the Green Cross Man was a satanist
Well, he was on the Dark Side.

A great Bill Bailey joke, when Prowse auditioned for the voice part:
"The forrce is straang in this one, moi 'andsome".

And it ame to pass that some place in Mississippi wanted to honour the chap
who /did/ get the voice part, by naming a street after him.

Unfortunately, they skimped a bit on their preparatory research and called
it "James Earl Ray Street".

--
Dave Larrington
http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk
We had that Maurits C. Escher in to do some building work once.
I haven't been able to leave the house since.

"Mark" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:19:56 +0100, "mileburner"
wrote:

The issues are complex because solving one problem can lead to another.
For
example, if you remove the parked cars, (legal or not), you end up with
increased traffic speeds.

Indeed and more traffic too I would suspect. That's one reason we are
in favour of road closure at school times. The main problem is that
there is too much traffic for the narrow roads to cope with. One road
is single lane at one point and this is always a problem area.

I cannot see that any LA (or whoever would be responsible) would have the
balls to allow a road to be closed to traffic for a limited period for the
safety of pedestians, even if they are schoolchildren. You would need
several fatal accidents before they took the issue *that* seriously.

There was a huge delivery lorry parked there this morning completely
blocking the pavement and leaving pedestrians and cars to squeeze
through the same small gap (i.e. the road). This is not an unusual
problem.

I have also seen this type of thing occur and it can actually improve safety
by making the traffic standstill. In fact, the school previously was in a no
through road and regularly became so jammed up that the pedestrians would be
clear of the area before the drivers could unblock themselves.

The biggest problem (and the one which can most
easily be tackled) is the school eliminating the problem of parents
driving
their children right up to the school.

This is an argument I frequently hear as an excuse to do nothing IMHO.
Yes, some parents are part of the problem but we have no special
control over the them. Apart from closing the school I cannot see any
way we can stop parents who are determined to drive their kids right
to the school gate. We frequently send out letters reminding them of
the alternatives, warning about specific problems but it has not
helped.

The fact is that teaching staff are scared ****less to do anything which
*might* upset parents. They *could* speak to parents about this at
parent/teacher evenings. They *could* speak to prospective parents about
this when they visit the school prior to their children joining and they
*could* raise awareness amongst the children by raising the subject at
school assemblies. But they don't. Instead they bleat that it's not their
responsibility.

What this *will* do is have a major
impact in the volume of traffic itself. Another thing that has worked well
outside my childrens school is they have painted a cycle lane. This has
stopped parents stopping and parking in it and the pedestrians now use it
as
additional footway - oh yes, the cyclists just ride out wider into the
ever
narrowing road. As a result of the ever narrowing road, the amount of
traffic which now try to use it as a rat-run has decreased sharply.

There would not be room for a cycle lane in the roads nearest the
schools, they are too narrow.

Our former head said exactly the same. But now there is one and the road has
become difficult for traffic to navigate.

My personal feeling is that that the school *should* take responsibility for
the traffic it generates and deal with it accordingly. However, we always
seem to end up with an eternal triangle of blame dodging: The school say it
is a police matter, the police say it is a council matter and the council
say it is a school matter. ******s - the lot of 'em.