Safety on the Roads
| Author | W. Clark |
| Published date | 01 October 1938 |
| Date | 01 October 1938 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X3801100409 |
Safety on the Roads
By A/Sgt. W.
CLARK
Colchester Borough Police
THE problem of ensuring safety on the roads has been
discussed in print by many police officers who have
studied it, and sometimes it has been
solved-to
their satis-
faction;
but
these solutions have generally been to the detri-
ment of road users of one class or another.
The
Chief Con-
stable of Exeter, however, has taken the war into the camps of
all road users, and I am sure he will not take it amiss if I
venture to criticise some of the conclusions to which he has
come in his interesting article "
The
Search for Safety on the
Roads." Indeed, criticism is bound to
come-from
the motorist
because he is already overburdened by regulation and law,
and the addition of more restrictive legislation would be to him
the last straw; from the pedal cyclist because he is in a very
strong
position-he
is ten millions strong and his vote is
something to be sought for at the next election; and from
the pedestrian, who is in an even stronger position and who
will not give up his ancient right to use the highway as he
thinks fit.
There is much to be said for all three classes of road users,
and each class can be trusted to voice its opinions, with varia-
tions, for itself.
The
difficulty is to obtain an unbiassed view
containing the rights and wishes of all classes, co-ordinated
and adjusted to give every road user as much of his rights and
wishes as is possible, consistent with the rights and wishes of
others, and then to translate that view into legislation.
It
is obvious that such legislation must be simple, straight-
forward, and applicable to every road user, and, what is far
more important, readily available to every road user.
The
average man does not pretend to know all the law
relating to the particular vehicle he may be using, nor the
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