Real world rides, real world riders

That’s fine! ...but just who’s out on patrol?

Good idea, eh? I mean come on, that’s what we need. A bit of wrist or wallet-slapping for the numpties out there struggling to get to grips with basic roadcraft because they are either stupid beyond the point of belief or can’t be bothered with any of it.

Except, when you look a little closer at the proposal it looks like it won’t make any difference. You see, in order to inflict these financial penalties on road users you need one resource that the Government seems to have forgotten about. So let’s spell it out nice and easy for them; you. need. traffic. police. officers. on. the. roads.

You try and find out exactly how many traffic officers there are on the roads right now, and how that figure compares to last year. It’s the devil’s own job. The best I could do was the particularly juicy figures from 2007, just before the financial world went into meltdown, that showed that the number of traffic police in England and Wales had fallen from 7525 in 1999 to 6511 in 2007, a reduction of 13%, according to figures obtained by the Conservatives. Consider also that the number of breath tests carried out fell from 765,000 in 1999 to 578,000 in 2004.

So. Let’s assume that the number of traffic officers has continued the downward trend. And we know that the revenue from speed cameras (sorry, Safety Cameras...) has fallen which is why so many councils who now don’t get the money directly like they used to are now turning them off. And suddenly the Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has hit on the wizard wheeze to bag £100 for road users who do things like tailgating, undertaking or generally drive dangerously.

As if the poor traffic officers haven’t got enough to do. Hammond says that the officers will hand out fixed penalty notices when an offence is caused.

Let’s get one thing clear here. As editor of MSL it’s my job to steer the ship and set editorial policy and as such MSL continues in the same vein it always has and that’s simple: we want more traffic officers on the roads. More officers on the roads means more professional eyes out there catching the idiots who drive and ride like they’re rushing for an urgent meeting with ambulance staff. More traffic police means more eyes out there getting rust-bucket vehicles off the road. More traffic police means more eyes nicking the scrotes who don’t bother with things like MoTs or insurance.

More traffic police makes the roads safer for all of us.

A few years ago I went out on a couple of shifts with traffic cops and I can’t begin to tell you how impressed I was with them. They are the ultimate hunters, they develop a sixth sense about a car. The way it looks, the way it behaves, the way it’s being driven. And when they pull one over they do it with good reason.

I’m not claiming that I’m always a good boy on the road. But I do know that when I’ve ever had my collar felt over the years it’s been because I’ve been one of the idiots.

I’ve had no other option but to shrug my shoulders, accept the punishment and keep my big mouth shut. 99.9% of traffic police are sound people doing a tough job, if they nick you it’s for good reason. Be a man about it and accept that you did wrong.

But there’s not enough of them out there and the ones that are on the roads are facing a rising tide of poor road skills and ignorance and now they’ve got to put up with this. Will a threat of a cash fine stop idiots being idiots on the road? I doubt it. We already have financial penalties and points on our licenses for when we’re being daft and there’s still a huge amount of poor road craft going on.

The only other solution for Mr Hammond might just be to increase driver education, but that’s going to cost money. I suppose with his immediate plan he gets to make some cash without having to spend a penny more or actually recruit one more officer.

Will it make the roads safer? No. Will it stop tailgating, undertaking, mobile phone use while driving? No.

Hammond’s department has come up with a plan that costs no money, grabs headlines and gives the impression that they’re actually doing something positive.

Clever little politician.

Tony