07 August 2013

Why do we need the 'nicewaycode' when we already have the Highway Code?

What does the nicewaycode do that the highway code doesn't already do?  As far as I can tell, it merely adds a 'light-hearted tone'.  Excuse me for being a spoilsport, but I don't think anyone who has ever lost a family member to an 'accident' will be happy about that.  

I count myself lucky to have survived a big nasty highway-closing multi-car pileup with an articulated lorry towing propane many years ago, and still can't hear sirens without shuddering.  If I know my family is out on the road, I wait with unreasoning anxiety until they come tumbling in the door.  Like many, I worry every day that something might happen on a commute to take me away from my beloved family. So, when I'm told that road users need to hear something in a humorous way in order to take it seriously, even though it is stuff they are already required to do by law (not to mention common-sense), I'm afraid I just don't find it funny. 

I'm sick of taxi drivers telling me to 'go read the highway code' when I'm the one following it to the letter, and they're the ones violating it.  I'm sick of seeing drivers running reds at an intersection I use twice a day, only to see the filth and scorn poured out at cyclists on twitter.  I'm sick of seeing drivers failing to indicate before turning onto the road outside my kids' school, and failing to look in their mirrors or shoulder-checking before pulling into the road - when they've stopped in a no stopping or loading zone. 

Let's all follow the Highway Code, and then we might all get (safely) along (the road). 

But let's be done with this fake bonhomie that pretends that a little humour will make everything okay, and the pretentious claims that some sort of 'research' has shown that this is a plausible expenditure of taxpayer's money. (Serious question - did the nicewycode's  research include talking to victims' families?, or the perpetrators of fatal accidents?  Did either of them think some 'light hearted' messages would help? Or that if they'd been nicer, the roads would have been safer that day?)

1 comment:

Dave H said...

I'm sure we should get a nice:not nice daily picture published somewhere like Pete Owens huge success with the 'Cycle Facility of the Month" for Warrington Cylists

Maybe a Niceperson of the day (given that short of staying locked indoors - like many kids) all of us are the target audience of road users.