Martin Porter QC challenges the car driven culture in the UK
Last year 2,538 people were killed in the UK, directly due to the presence of motor vehicles on the roads. A further 229,000 were injured. Others suffered detrimental effects from the emissions, noise, and even fear of traffic. Motor vehicles were a major source of carbon emissions.
The number of pedestrians killed by cyclists is similar to the number killed by golf balls; in each case too small to register on statistics, but on the few occasions per decade that it does occur it is accompanied by much publicity. The convenience of the car over the last century has led to the development of a culture which largely exempts motoring from the strict regulation of other areas of life in which poor practice costs lives.
The main tenets of this car culture can be summarised as follows:
(i) The attrition is a price worth paying in return for individual autonomy and convenience.
(ii) Every physically competent adult has a right to drive, removable only as a punishment for serious or repeated criminal offending
