Friday, August 26, 2005
"Vision Zero"? Just come clean and call it "no vision".
I was depressed to hear, at the beginning of the week, that two of the top 3 books that British MPs planned to read on holiday were The Da Vinci Code and the new Harry Potter book. So, a voting majority of those elected to the Mother of all Parliaments choose to spend their precious reading time on either a shoddily-written mystery, or a children’s book? What does this tell us about their appetite for a mental challenge? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all in favour of holiday relaxation, but if our representatives are working as hard as they should be, it ought to take something a little more demanding to keep their eyes open beside the pool.
Almost more depressing was the suggestion on Radio 4’s Today programme that they had chosen these books not according to their real tastes, but according to what they thought The Public would like. So, while secretly packing their suitcases with Proust, William Burroughs and Virginia Woolf, they’re so frightened of appearing highbrow that they’ve chosen titles they know millions of us have bought, eh? Great, so instead of lazy-minded fools with a reading age of 9, we’re actually being ruled by a bunch of craven, patronising, vote-whores, who think that WE are all lazy-minded fools. We elected you to lead us, you spineless bootlickers, not to assume the worst of us and then pander to it. What are you scared of – that you’ll meet some English people binge drinking on holiday, and get roughed up for reading poncey books with long words in?
Much more serious, though, was the news in this week’s MotorCycleNews (www.motorcyclenews.com) that a Swedish transport advisor is prepared to take safety culture to its logical conclusion. Sweden’s government transport policy, called “Vision Zero”, aims to reduce road casualties to zero by the year 2020. That is, nobody injured, nobody killed. Even if everyone drove a Volvo, it’s hard to see how this could happen, and Claes Tingvall is reported to have said on Swedish television that “motorcycles must go”, since no motorcycle could ever be 100% safe.
In a way, it’s a relief to see the “zero risk” approach exposed for the impossibility that it is. Everybody has to die of something, and reducing casualties from one cause ultimately means that we die of something else – hopefully having enjoyed extra years of life. But what is life? More, I hope, than just postponing death. Most people who enjoy risky activities, including motorcycling, do so because it makes us feel more intensely alive, not because we’re seeking death.
But in today’s climate of fear, it’s only too possible that Vision Zero could be the new god, at whose altar all real, risky, unpredictable, worthwhile life will be sacrificed. When you’ve got a cure for cancer, stroke, heart failure, Parkinson’s disease, and all the other lingering deaths that await me in my safe, warm bed, come back and tell me I can’t ride a motorbike or fly a microlight or climb a mountain. Until then, I’ve only one thing to say to your Vision Zero – “Get a Life”.
Almost more depressing was the suggestion on Radio 4’s Today programme that they had chosen these books not according to their real tastes, but according to what they thought The Public would like. So, while secretly packing their suitcases with Proust, William Burroughs and Virginia Woolf, they’re so frightened of appearing highbrow that they’ve chosen titles they know millions of us have bought, eh? Great, so instead of lazy-minded fools with a reading age of 9, we’re actually being ruled by a bunch of craven, patronising, vote-whores, who think that WE are all lazy-minded fools. We elected you to lead us, you spineless bootlickers, not to assume the worst of us and then pander to it. What are you scared of – that you’ll meet some English people binge drinking on holiday, and get roughed up for reading poncey books with long words in?
Much more serious, though, was the news in this week’s MotorCycleNews (www.motorcyclenews.com) that a Swedish transport advisor is prepared to take safety culture to its logical conclusion. Sweden’s government transport policy, called “Vision Zero”, aims to reduce road casualties to zero by the year 2020. That is, nobody injured, nobody killed. Even if everyone drove a Volvo, it’s hard to see how this could happen, and Claes Tingvall is reported to have said on Swedish television that “motorcycles must go”, since no motorcycle could ever be 100% safe.
In a way, it’s a relief to see the “zero risk” approach exposed for the impossibility that it is. Everybody has to die of something, and reducing casualties from one cause ultimately means that we die of something else – hopefully having enjoyed extra years of life. But what is life? More, I hope, than just postponing death. Most people who enjoy risky activities, including motorcycling, do so because it makes us feel more intensely alive, not because we’re seeking death.
But in today’s climate of fear, it’s only too possible that Vision Zero could be the new god, at whose altar all real, risky, unpredictable, worthwhile life will be sacrificed. When you’ve got a cure for cancer, stroke, heart failure, Parkinson’s disease, and all the other lingering deaths that await me in my safe, warm bed, come back and tell me I can’t ride a motorbike or fly a microlight or climb a mountain. Until then, I’ve only one thing to say to your Vision Zero – “Get a Life”.
