[David9694]

Strange, isn’t it Germans, Remainers and cyclists looking on grimly at the last few days of driver hysteria. 

The oddest thing is how badly affected London and the south-east are – the best connected area, ranking high among those having most public transport and other travel options. 

As a cyclist, this doesn’t seem like much of an attitude or behaviour changer.  It does reveal to a wider audience a bit about the weird attachment some people have to their cars; how desperation, violence and abuse lurk just below the surface. 

In the short term, fuel shortages mean more frustrated drivers  scratting around for their precious supplies; more danger, more disruption when they find it. 

Unsurprisingly, the anti-LTN voices purporting to be concerned about emergency ambulances remain silent throughout. 

I take no pleasure in any of the chaos as I have elderly relatives who are highly reliant on twice-daily carers. What if it gets so bad that they can’t do their job? Brexiters seem to suggest this is just a patch of turbulence,  a necessary temporary sacrifice on the way to the sunny uplands. I guess we’ve all got to tighten our belts and believe a bit more strongly. 

As a remainer, petrolgate feels highly potent – whether we on here like it or not, as a politician, you upset the driver lobby at your peril.  Brexit, in the form of not enough drivers is hitting a lot of people in a place it really hurts. “Sort it” will be the terse message from local MPs to the PM. 

Yes I know, it’s an area that had issues before – but one of several where Brexit has been randomly chucked in with no plan.  I get a sense of some parts of industry being inert and saying to the govt – “your mess…”

Sarah Everard  – It’s not the time to highlight this more broadly, but there are parallels at so many levels with road violence and the fight against both. 

The car as a facilitator of the patriarchy might sound a bit far fetched, but a car was a vital tool in perpetrating this terrible crime.  And countless others perpetrated by men against women and girls at a range of levels.  Yes, Against me when I’m cycling – that’s a parallel, a shared interest in countering bullying and worse.

The issue is evderday-ised, trivialised so it goes largely unnoticed.  Victims need to take greater care, more precautions.  Flag down a bus  – how very London.  I haven’t yet heard anyone say “what was she doing out on her own at that hour – silly girl” but you can bet plenty are thinking it.  The police response in the news, despite their having months to think about it, is so far bumbling and inappropriate.  Any “I know my rights” miscreant now has an ideal excuse to evade arrest. 

There are so many things that, as brought home by the e-scooters, could be done to make cars less dangerous, but drivers’ freedoms and privileges matter more than any safety or even crime reduction argument.  We could have black boxes that mean a car won’t go if it is abused in any way, that can’t exceed the speed limit – but we invest instead in ever more roads. 

I’m not qualified to say what needs to change as regards women’s safety and freedom: I’m not going to try and mansplain that one, although men have a major part to play in effecting change. It’s a time to listen, listen to women.

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[kil0ran]

Every modern society is 7

Every modern society is 7 days away from feudal anarchy. It really doesn’t take much, and once the violence is met with violence unstoppable hell is unleashed

Ballard has much to say on the subject, be it in Crash or High Rise or Cocaine Nights or Millenium People. The trigger is always something innocuous. 

 

[Secret_squirrel]

Why dont they go the whole

Why dont they go the whole hog and support drink driving!

[Secret_squirrel]

More likely back to the

More likely back to the powerstations.   You can assume that 90% of people with an electric car leave home with a “full tank” every morning.

Fortunately given the long lead time for new cars any “electric surge” will  mostly come after the winter is over, gas prices have dropped and the France-UK interconnector fire damage has been repaired.

On the selfish note I was talking to a lady at the weekend who is a friend of the lady who runs one of our local village petrol stations.  She’s had fuel on and off all week – albeit with fillups limited to £30.   On Thursday she had so much abuse from drivers that she decided to shut up shop for a couple of days, even though she had petrol left.

This year seems to be bringing out peoples inner arsehole.

[hawkinspeter]

Petrol-gate certainly seems

Petrol-gate certainly seems to be highlighting some people’s selfishness. The slight shortage could easily have been managed if it weren’t for panic buying of petrol and of course some people are driving around lots in an attempt to buy petrol.

I wonder if this is going to push more people into getting electric vehicles though that just moves the bottleneck onto electric charge points instead.

[markieteeee]

It feels like the site ought

It feels like the site ought to have a ‘like’ for forum posts so people can register their approval for an article rather than just being able to like subsequent comments. A thoughtful and well-written piece.

With regards to Sarah Everard, the incident was indeed weaponised by the small but well organised anti-LTN lobby in my borough to argue for more driving privileges; despite, as you say, his car being a vital tool in the crime.  Within hours of it happening, and repeated on subsequent days, there were several similar-sounding comments on the ongoing live consultations making claims that without speeding traffic through residential streets, there would be less witnesses around to prevent attacks on lone women. Many specifically referenced Sarah, it was hard to read. She was literally abducted on a main road by a man in a car. 

[Author]

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