[sustran] [World Streets Daily] "Street code": A World Streets Campaign for 2009

Eric Britton (France) editor at worldstreets.org
Wed Mar 25 20:14:42 JST 2009


The Highway Code: a collection of laws, advice and best practice for
all road users, which mainly functions as a written basis for learning
to drive as well as stipulating the letter of the law (licensing,
required safety equipment, default rules, etc.) In Europe this happens
at a national level, with room in some places for stricter local
ordinances. In the US mainly a state prerogative. In all cases the code
itself is the creature of the automotive age and is primarily concerned
with defining the role and characteristics of motor vehicle driver and
owner behavior.Many European cities are of late starting to advance on
the idea of establishing a far tougher "street codes", specifically
adapted to the special and more demanding conditions of driving in city
traffic. This is becoming especially important as we start to see a
much greater mix of vehicles, speeds and people on the street. If
streets are for cars, well this is probably not a priority. But if they
are "public spaces" and open to the full range of uses and users, then
perhaps something along these lines is called for.The idea is works is
that legal responsibility for any accident on street, sidewalk or
public space, is automatically assigned to the heavier faster vehicle.
This means that the driver who hits a cyclist has to prove his
innocence, as opposed to today where the cyclist must prove the
driver's guilt (not always very easy to do).This is not quite as good
as John Adams' magnificent 1995 formulation whereby every steering
wheel of every car , truck and bus would be equipped with a large sharp
nail aimed directly at the driver’s heart-- but it can at least help
getting things moving in the right direction.We propose to make this a
major campaign theme of World Streets in 2009 and invite our readers to
submit their reports, ideas and comments over the course of the months
ahead.If you look over toward the top of the left menu here, you will
see that we have opened up a reader poll in an attempt to get your
views as well. We also invite comment here on the results.The editor

--
Posted By Eric Britton (France) to World Streets Daily at 3/25/2009
12:06:00 PM
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.jca.apc.org/public/sustran-discuss/attachments/20090325/7bfc0a51/attachment.html


More information about the Sustran-discuss mailing list