So, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond is apparently mad enough to try and increase the motorway speed limit to 80mph after all, after our blog in March questioned why he would bother subjecting himself to the inevitable backlash.
Next week’s Tory Conference is to be the platform upon which he nails his colours to the mast, with a consultation on the proposals due later in the year. Read Full Article »
In among the regular deluge of junk mail, catalogues for stationary distributors you don’t recall signing up to and insurers promising bargain basement premiums, you may recently have spied a letter from the Traffic Commissioner.
Not that you would ignore anything turning up via snail mail from your TC; however, it is worth mentioning that this is one letter that it is vital to respond to.
Its purpose is twofold; firstly to remind operators and transport managers that the rules for applying for and holding standard goods licences are changing in December. Read Full Article »
There seems to be a whiff of political point scoring about Northern Ireland’s environment minister Alex Attwood’s plans to cut the blood alcohol limit from 80mg/100ml to 50mg. You’d hope that he’s read the Transport Select Committee’s report into this issue, Sir Peter North’s review and the myriad problems associated with lowering the current limit. Read Full Article »
With the appetite for roads pricing pretty much non-existent in the public, and therefore in Westminster, and no money down the back of the Treasury’s sofa for more road building, MPs have been scratching their heads thinking up other ways to cut congestion.
One of their bright ideas is to give council officials the power to dish out fines to motorists if they flout the rules of the road.
The police’s claim that it has become more selective and effective in its breath tests is looking as shaky as a drunk driver attempting a roadside impairment test, if the Telegraph is to be believed.
Last week the Daily Mail was on hand to remind us all again that people are driving on UK roads with more than 12 penalty points and with the blessing of the courts.
According to the latest Freedom of Information request (and there have been many) there are 10,072 of these motorists distracting the Mail from its usual news carousel of benefit scroungers and general, all-encompassing f.e.a.r.