Three traffic wardens for one car

I watched a pack of traffic wardens surround a car in Market Street, Oxford this afternoon. I guess only one gets the bonus and perhaps they had all raced to get there, the fastest getting to do the job while the others stood around and chatted.

Or perhaps it really does take three of them – one to do the reedin, one for the ritin and one to operate the camera, with the reward money divvied up between them.

A different view of grafitti

I was about to publish one of my periodic comments on the prevalence of graffiti in my part of North Oxford and at the failure by both Oxford City Council and the police to do anything either to prevent it or to clear it up.

My most recent post was in April (see Oxford graffiti gets worse) and concerned, as before, the track leading to Port Meadow and the bridge across the railway. I was then (and remained) angry that the dullards of Oxford City Council had boasted of a project to clear graffiti quickly but had in fact merely sprayed paint over some of, thus permanently ruining decent brickwork and providing the yobbos with a blank canvas. I suggested that they just left it alone until someone more active, caring and competent took over the job.

My update post has been pre-empted by a comment from a reader which to not be ignored even if I do not agree with what he says. His comment (published, unusually for me, in full) is as follows:

Keeping up the road works in Oxford

An article on my Oxford Agenda site called Speed cameras and statistical ignorance had as its twin targets the use of false statistics to justify restrictions on the roads, and the fact that highways officers are good examples of high-spending bureaucrats who plough on with wholly unnecessary road works while the rest of us tighten our belts.

Living in Oxfordshire, I do not have to look far for examples of both. I cite the panic-struck rush to put barriers down Oxford’s Eastern By Pass following an accident which was patently caused by the misjudgement and stupidity of a woman who was jailed for it. I might have added the enormous sums lashed out on the Cowley Road following a bus-cyclist accident which again had an obvious cause unconnected with the road layout. That one had also the use of retrospective statistics as to the percentage drop in accidents which, on examination, derived from a sample too small to mean anything and devoid of any analysis as to the origins of such accidents as there were – this being the point of the speed camera study which my article is about.

Lib Dems succeed in pushing at 20mph open door

The latest edition of the Oxford Lib Dems circular proudly boasts of their success in persuading Oxfordshire County Council to agree unanimously to impose a 20 mph limit on all non-arterial residential roads in Oxford. The screaming headline “Lib Dems win on 20 limits” and the breathless account of the victory might give the impression that startling flights of oratory and skilful negotiation were needed. In fact, agreement to the measure has long been inevitable. What is more important – and deeply depressing – is why this should be so.

Stiff penalties will enforce eco-town viability

A comment comes in about the transport aspects of eco-towns covered in my post of last night Weston-Otmoor Flintgrad will be Commuterville. It suggests that the fine for driving out of Flintgrad at peak times could be as high as £200.

That seems consistent with the general approach likely to be taken by a government which thinks that heavy-handed authoritarianism is the way to go. My theme yesterday was that we are in fact unlikely to see the transport benefits – the incentives – which the developer is offering. They are out of the developer’s hands anyway, and any scheme which depends on a Labour government honouring its commitments, on the competence of Network Rail, and on the the abilities of the transport officers of Oxfordshire County Council, is doomed to failure.

Desecrated Oxford in the Times

A letter under the title Oxford desecrated appeared in the Times of 19 May. The writer refers to the honeyed rhythm, curve, quality and dramatic punctuation of the High and says:

The road itself is not a smooth surface sending the eye to the gorgeous gold of the stone, but a pock-marked way, cluttered with signs, part-barriers and the other detritus of modern traffic management. It is as if some monstrous urban planner has, with calm deliberation, set upon a path of destruction. And it is impossible to believe that any other great city would visit such horrors on such beauty.

He wonders if we could engage some Oxford minds on the subject.

Photographing traffic wardens

I did a piece yesterday about a traffic warden who “ordered” a driver to delete photographs which he took of her. The source of that was an Oxford Times Online story which has since attracted some comments.

One is a useful note about precedents for such heavy-handed reactions, making it clear that policemen and their kind have no right to prevent photography or order deletion of photographs which have been taken. There are qualifications – private landowners or private functions can make their own rules, the police may have the right to keep everyone away from a major incident, celebrities may be able to bar publication in certain circumstances, organisations are restricted in respect of the personal data they can keep, there might be protection from extreme harassment, and there are probably certain defence installations where photographs are expressly prohibited by law.

Data Protection and public photographs

Oxford Times Online has a story about a man who, whilst being given a parking ticket by a traffic warden, spotted that she had herself parked on a double-yellow line and took a photograph of her. She “ordered” him to delete the photograph, saying that taking photographs of her was in breach of the Data Protection Act, and threatened to call the police when he refused to do so.

There are four distinct elements here – the alleged parking offence, the warden’s own parking, the Data Protection Point and the threat to call the police. Of those, three are easily disposed of.

Oxford park-and-rides to be free at last

The rumours are that Oxford City Council is planning to hand over control of the three park-and-ride car parks which it controls to Oxfordshire County Council, that all park-and-rides will be free, and that more spaces will be provided. The aim, of course, is encouragement to drivers to stay out of the city by offering them an incentive to park on the edge of town.

Oxfordshire transport head on High horse

There is a letter in this week’s Oxford Times from Steve Howell, Head of Transport at Oxfordshire County Council. He is terribly upset about complaints reported the previous week from the Warden of All Souls amongst others, who protested about the vandalism perpetrated the length of Oxford’s High Street by the uncultured, insensitive oafs of Oxfordshire County Council.

Howell boasts of the work already done to the High with paving and road surfaces improved with a de-cluttering of signage where possible. He goes on:

I, therefore, slightly resent the undertones that that we are cold and unfeeling towards the heritage of the High Street and its status as an Oxford gem.

I saw no such undertones in the reported comments. The paper’s short report included expressions like “vandalism”, “ill thought-out”, “too appalling to contemplate”, “a thoughtless proposal from engineers who have studied maps, not organisations or people”, “further vandalism of the High Street”, “a sorry sight in terms of signage, street furniture, eyesore boxes and machines”. If Howell thinks these are merely “undertones” then his skin is as thick as his head.

Thinking expensively for us at Tackley Halt

There is a disappointing leader in the Oxford Times this week, with the Editor apparently subscribing to the widely-held idea that “they” must do our thinking for us. It is the job of sensible newspaper editors to try and stem the flow of such nonsense, not to ride it or encourage it.

The context is the unfortunate death of an elderly woman under a train at Tackley Halt. Villagers, says the Oxford Times, had warned Network Rail five years ago of their “real concerns”. Network Rail had applied successfully for planning permission for a tunnel but had decided after a risk assessment that warning signs were sufficient.

The leader writer concludes from this that a death on the crossing is “sad proof that the assessment was wrong”. It might be “might simply be pure luck” that there have been no other fatalities. A “fresh assessment…is needed urgently”.

Bollocks.

Traffic lights dawn on Keith Mitchell

There is an interesting letter on various highways points in this week’s Oxford Times from Keith Mitchell, the Leader of Oxfordshire County Council. His wet rag colleague, Ian Hudspeth, is actually in charge of highways, but I guess that Mitchell has despaired of his ability to get across the council’s views – Hudspeth seems to be the highways officers’ poodle, which is a bit like having the governor of the asylum counter-signing the inmates’ letters.

Money no object at New Road

I bet your reaction to these photographs was the same as mine. It looks like the usual Oxfordshire County Council highways scenario, doesn’t it?

You see the straightforward T junction at the junction of New Road, Worcester Street and Park End Street. The traffic here is relatively light because the roads are closed off in two directions, but the junction seems to warrant lots of traffic lights AND a roundabout.

£13 million less to waste on roads in 2008

The Government has cut £13 million from the money which Oxfordshire County Council hoped to spend on transport schemes. In general one hopes for more rather than less to be diverted to one’s region by way of reciprocity for the huge sums one pays in tax, but this cut does at least spare us the sight of our money being thrown away before our eyes.

Westgate War to continue

The Battle of Bonn Square has given way to the War of Westgate, as protesters promise to keep fighting the development to the end. As one who has long predicted a civil uprising in Oxford, I am on their side.

I am not, I have to say, a natural ally of fluffy-headed Greens or unwashed tree-campers, nor would I dream of arguing that the present Westgate and its hinterland are worth preserving. But they are as ghastly as they are because an earlier generation of city planners and city councillors made exactly the same mistakes as this lot are about to make, and with the same uncaring ignorance of aesthetics, unthinking servility towards big business, and unwarranted contempt for democracy.

Social compact in New York streets

I was in New York recently, and marvelled at how it works compared with London or Oxford. Four things appealed in particular – the way the traffic flows across junctions, the absence of litter and the presence of policemen, and the fewness of nagging signs about things everyone knows anyway.

Now, I was in the better part of Manhattan where the street grid helps with the traffic, and New York is not exactly short of other signs and notices. The point about each of these observations is that it is policy, and not just (that is, not only) incompetent neglect, which makes the difference over here.

Judge attacks Cowley Road changes

A judge at Oxford County Court criticised the recent changes to the road layouts in Cowley Road as he awarded damages to a cyclist who was injured when a bus pulled out in front of him.

The injured man is reported in the Oxford Times as saying “If I hadn’t turned to avoid the bus, I might not have been here. The road narrows so dramatically, buses have to swing out into the road, meaning their back swings out. Its so dangerous. It is only a matter of time before somebody gets killed”.

Digging up the Cowley Road again

It is only a few months since Oxfordshire County Council did major works in the Cowley Road. Their “improvements”, allegedly on grounds of safety, led a correspondent in the Oxford Times to ask if the highways officers were seeking revenge for some childhood injury at the hands of a cyclist by creating a series of death-traps.

Certainly I find it more dangerous as an occasional driver there, as cyclists negotiate the chicanes and dodge the buses. These used to proceed in a straight line, but now dart in and out of the expensively curved bays and round the obstructions deliberately placed in their way by the unthinking dead-heads of County Highways.

Emptying some bins in Oxford

I was much impressed to see an Oxford City Council van full of bin bags on Sunday morning outside the Anchor in Hayfield Road, particularly as I had just walked past two overflowing bins in Aristotle Lane rec.

I watched it turn, backwards and forwards as one has to now at the end of Aristotle Lane, thanks to the mess of bollards and posts which Oxfordshire County Council has dumped there (I often wonder how much pollution that causes) and I wondered idly if it would take the easy route into Aristotle Lane up the wrong side of the bollards.

No. It did not go up Aristotle Lane at all, but just drove off. So, this council, which is always nagging us about vehicle pollution and fining us for litter offences, drives a bin van within 40 yards of two overflowing bins and drives off without collecting the rubbish. The bins remained full all through Sunday and were still overflowing on Monday morning.

It is probably not the fault of the drivers who, I imagine, have to follow a rota drawn up by some unthinking wally in the council offices. It seems nonsense to me. Can anyone offer a rational explanation?

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Expect more Highways junk at Aristotle Lane

My post Come to see how not to do it at Aristotle Lane is answered by a reader who saw a similar group of local authority types standing at the end of Aristotle Lane on a different occasion last week. Like me, he fears another round of expensive unnecessary works here.

The usual pattern is that someone complains that her little boy is due to start at the school next year and might be afraid of the possibility that he might come within yards of being run over if he ran into the road when a car was anywhere near. She is joined by that regiment of North Oxford busybodies who forever think that “something must be done”. We pay all that money in Council Tax, they say, oblivious to the fact that if less money was wasted on unnecessary road works the Council Tax might actually go down.