It is strange that in a world where so much effort is being spent in trying to find more diabolical ways and means of destroying life, that there should also be so much effort directed towards preserving it. Whilst governments spend money on bigger and better bombs to blow babies to bits, they also spare a few coppers to exhort road users to be careful in order to reduce the toll on young life on the roads. Between rival posters extolling the merits of the army, the navy or the air force as a career for young men, can be found one that depicts a stern looking mobile policeman pointing and urging “Mind how YOU go!”
Sitting in a bus reading in the morning paper about the large number of lives that can be wiped out with one atom bomb, we can look up and see pedestrian crossings, traffic lights, Belisha beacons, pavement railings, halt and go slow signs, subways, “cross here" indicators, speed limit notices and all the other paraphernalia calculated to reduce road accidents and save life.
“The borough of — ?— welcomes careful drivers” is a common sign these days. Lamp posts are decorated with picture posters and slogans, “The next step may be your last;” “ Better safe than sorry ” or “Pedestrians use, motorists observe the crossings.'’ Footprints are painted on the pavement to indicate where to cross the road and studs are arranged to spell, “Look to the Right” Local authorities erect notices comparing the monthly number of deaths from road accidents in the district with the number during the corresponding month the previous year. Newspapers tell us of the total number of deaths from the same cause throughout the country.
Letters to editors and to the B.B.C. argue around various schemes to prevent the growing toll of the roads. Some say that greater penalties for careless driving will have an effect Some claim that the roads are to blame as they are too narrow or not fit for fast traffic. Others divide their condemnations between bright headlights, intoxicating drink, speed, jay-walking, bicycles and lack of courtesy.
No doubt speed is a contributory factor to this death toll. Not high speed necessarily, but excessive speed under the prevailing conditions. A better word than speed is haste, hurry or hustle. What would be classified as dangerous haste when driving a car through a market town on market day. would be considered a menacing crawl when on a wide concrete by-pass road.
This is an age of haste. The competition of capitalism has driven men to hurry and hustle. "Time is money” is a slogan of the day. We search for ever quicker ways of getting things done. We have quick service snack bars, speedy boot repairs, time saving soap substitutes, ready in moment breakfast cereals, time saving household gadgets and even quick fire entertainment to satisfy this urge to speed up the tempo of life. We live in the system of the alarm clock, the factory punch clock, the school bell, the time-table, the moving belt and the speedometer. So that no time shall be “lost" we have the hours divided up, the minutes portioned out, whistles are blown, sirens are sounded, bells are rung and "pips” come over the radio. We even have time and motion study experts.
Centuries ago, although men lived a more primitive existence, they also led a more leisurely one. With the growth of trade came the need to be first with the goods and early in the market. Speed on the road was very limited whilst the only power unit for transport was the horse. But the tendency for greater haste and more speed was apparent Stage coaches vied with one another in their endeavours to whisk their passengers from place to place in the shortest possible time. In 1776 Mathew Pickford advertised flying wagons from Manchester to London in five and a half days at an average speed of just over 1½ miles an hour. In 1800, Thomas and James Pickford sent a daily service over the same route in four days.
The development of steam power opened up new possibilities of greater speeds. With the advent of the petrol motor came the era of high speeds which have only recently been exceeded by the turbine jet engine. An Act of Parliament of 1861 limited locomotives on the highways to a maximum speed of 10 miles per hour in the country and 5 miles per hour in the towns. Four years later these limits were reduced to 4 and 2 miles respectively and every vehicle had to be accompanied by three men, one of whom had to walk in front with a red flag to warn horses.
This low speed limit and the "man with a flag” regulation, hampered the early motor cars. In 1896 the law was repealed and the "Locomotives on Highways Act” of that year permitted speeds of 14 miles per hour. In 1903 the "Motor-car Act” allowed a maximum speed of 20 miles an hour. Today the speed limit is removed except for certain types of motor vehicles and in "built-up” areas.
Another quality which, together with speed, is a factor in the road death problem, is weight. Weight and speed give momentum, and momentum, in either a bullet or a car, can kill. The laws which allowed ever-increasing speeds ran parallel with others which allowed increases in weight. A "Heavy Motor-car Order” of 1904 allowed a maximum unladen weight of 5 tons, and with trailer 6½ tons. The "Roads Act” of 1920 increased this to 7¼ tons and allowed six-wheelers to carry 10 to 12 tons.
This, then, is the set-up that is responsible for many of those road deaths—greater speed, greater weight and greater size coupled with the urge to hurry. The need to get to work on time and the strong desire to get finished on time. The fear of being late and the desire not to waste time. Drivers trying to maintain time schedules and children scared of being late for school. Salesmen speeding to be first to get to a customer and housewives hurrying to be first on the queue at the shops. Heavy transport vehicles that are paid by the load and hasten to get in as many loads a day as possible; and old folks who are not sufficiently nimble to fit into an age of hustle and rush.
We are not going to claim that Socialism will eliminate all road deaths. Neither do we anticipate that, in a Socialist order of society, there will necessarily be a great restriction in speeds or weights of vehicles. Fast moving, heavy load-carrying vehicles can be an asset in any future society. But, with the introduction of Socialism there will be an end to the competitive scramble of capitalism: worker competing with worker for a job; shopkeeper competing with shopkeeper for custom; company competing with company for markets; nation competing with nation for international trade. All trying to steal a march on one another by being first. All hurrying for fear of being "left at die post.” Socialism will end that and will allow of a more leisurely tenor to life. There may or may not be solutions to the road casualty problem within capitalism. That is not our worry. Capitalism fritters away human life in many ways and it is our task to overthrow the system itself. We are no more, and no less, shocked by the number of road deaths than we are by the numbers who die from malnutrition or from tuberculosis through lack of clean, fresh air and sunshine; or those who are killed in capitalist wars; or those who perish in mine disasters and shipwrecks in the scramble for profit. Nearly all this waste of life is the result of a system in which production is for sale with a view to profit. We aim to end that system and, in so doing, extend the lifetime of many, and make that lifetime more enjoyable.
When we see on the hoardings a poster advertising the number of children killed per day on the roads in Britain, or one that shows the tear-stained face of a widow over the words, "Keep Death off the Road,” and close beside it another poster pictorially glorifying the life of the man who is trained to kill—the soldier, we can think of only one word. HUMBUG!
W. Waters
1 comment:
That's the March 1951 issue of the Socialist Standard done and dusted.
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