Petitions & Campaigns
If you have a Petition, Campaign, or other cause you would like us to help publicise, especially if it is related to road safety, or other transport issues, please email us your details and that of your petition, goal, or interest. We are especially interested in exchanging links with sites that have a common goal or shared interest. You can contact us via the email link below:
We're not just about Potholes...:
As well as our Potholes Petition, we also support other good causes, especially safety-related ones, so please read further down. To sign our petition, please go to
change.org/FixTheUKsPotholes (Opens in new window)
Please
sign and share
our petition (on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), Tik-Tok, etc., or by email or text, as we need all the signatures we can get if this is to have any impact. It is especially important that as many people as possible share the link to our petition, as we can only put pressure on Councils and the Government if enough people sign and that needs people to share the links with their friends, colleagues and family and on as many Social Media sites as possible, or by email or text/app. message (WhatsApp, Skype, Messenger, Signal, etc.).
When signing, you will need to confirm your email address, but there is no need to make a contribution (you will likely be prompted to do so, but this is from Change.org, who are a for-profit organisation and use 'donations' to pay (themselves) to promote petitions. You can choose to not have your name published on the website and can also choose not to receive updates about this or other petitions, or, you can just choose to 'unsubscribe' from further emails at any time.
We recognise that repairing potholes may seem to be a relatively minor issue, compared to bigger issues, such as Climate Change, Water Avaialability & Use, War in Ukraine and other parts of the world and even other UK specific issues, such as the NHS, Education, Police etc., but that does not mean that our roads should just be left to deteriorate and become a danger to all who use them. This petition is all about improving the
safety
of our roads above all else.
Vehicles and road use are, quite rightly, coming under attack because of Climate Change, and we all need to do more to reduce the number of miles we drive and place a gentler and smaller footprint (and tyreprint) on this delicate earth that we all call home, especially in the more 'developed' parts of the world. Cars and other vehicles are bad enough for the environment already, without having to discard even more tyres, suspension components and other parts - long before they have served their usual lifespan - because of potholes and other road surface defects. Electric vehicles are exactly the same in this respect.
Ignoring the state of the roads and allowing them to fall into a state of disrepair is not the way to get people off the roads; this way lies madness, causing increased accidents, loss of working hours, stress, frustration and spiralling costs, which can only result in an increase in the total cost to repair and maintain our roads in the long run.
Repairing potholes and other road defects costs a lot of money and uses a tremendous amount of material, which in itself is extremely eco-
un
-friendly,
especially
when done so badly that it needs re-doing soon after, as so many are right now! Roads, cars and other vehicles are one of the largest contributors to global warming, environmental damage and loss of habitat for wildlife, but if we are to have roads, then they should be kept in good condition for safety sake and to avoid unnecessary wastage. The way forward is to make
better
use of our roads -
and
the rail network (see 'Railways', below)!
'Smart' Motorways
Please support the fight against Smart Motorways by Claire Mercer, who's husband was tragically killed on a smart motorway, by pledging money for her legal fight against them on the
CrowdJustice website. You can find out more about her campaign on her website,
smartmotorwayskill.co.uk>.
Claire is, in her own words, 'a one woman band', taking on the Government and Highways England to try to get these dangerous roads changed back to proper motorways, with hard shoulders. Oh her site, she lists some of the other people also killed on 'smart motorways'. Lets do what we can to stop this carnage as soon as possible and stop the list of victims and their bereaved and devastated families getting any longer.
As Claire says:
'We’re fighting in the names of: Jason Mercer, Alexandru Murgeanu, Nargis Begum, Derek Jacobs, Dev Naran, Jamil Ahmed, Zahir Ahmed, Martin Davies, Sevim Üstün, Ayşe Üstün and unfortunately, many more, so far unnamed'.
'This campaign, with your help, is bringing a judicial review to force a legal stop to smart motorways in the names of everyone killed and hurt on these death traps'.
'We are also bringing class actions and disability discrimination complaints and pushing very hard for South Yorkshire Police to investigate Highways England for corporate manslaughter. (**Update: SYP are now investigating H.E for corporate manslaughter in the deaths in the South Yorkshire area**)'.
Please do what you can to help Claire. As she also says, 'together we are stronger'. I couldn't agree more and I personally have donated to this cause. Please, do your bit and donate whatever you can afford - every £ counts, no amount is too little
What are we doing?
We strongly support Claire's campaign to get so-called 'Smart Motorways' abolished and returned to their former state of having a hard shoulder, i.e., 'standard' or 'proper' motorways - or as we like to call them, 'Motorways'. See below for why we believe they are particularly dangerous.
There is also a petition, started and run by Ryan Ridgway - please sign this petition at:
Change.org/Scrap Dangerous Smart Motorways today! (Opens in new window)
Of course, no road is perfectly safe. Motorways, however,
used to be
one of our safest roads - and they still are, as far as normal driving goes. But now, because of the usual three (or more) fast lanes and surrounding armco barriers on motorways and link roads, having no hard shoulder is making them exceptionally dangerous in the case of a breakdown, or coming across an existing breakdown or minor accident, where the vehicles involved would normally (for a breakdown), be on the hard shoulder and mostly out of the way of general traffic.
Without a hard shoulder, emergency vehicles are quite likely to have no easy way through traffic that has come to a halt after an accident, epsecially a big one, where their help will be needed the most - and fast! This aspect of removing hard shoulders seems to have been forgotten, or just ignored, in the rush to expand the number of live lanes on the cheap. So, when there is a major pile-up, which is bound to happen from time to time, especially in fog or wintry weather, how are the fire engines, ambulances and police going to reach the people who are seriously or even critically injured? They are likely to have to wait even longer to be rescued and taken to hospital - which is is no doubt going to cost even more lives!
Even for a simple break-down though, 'Emergency Areas' on 'Smart Motorways' instead of a continuous hard shoulder, is simply
NOT
safe - or smart! You can break down anywhere, as much as half a mile away - and having to rely on technology to slow and stop traffic
in real time
is simply unrealistic dreaming!
Even
if
it worked perfectly and instantly (it
can't!
), by the time you saw any notice, it would most likely already be too late, unless you're a long way behind and unlikely to be afected anyway! Relying on the same sort of technology as on phones/tablets, computers and the internet - which regularly freeze, crash and suffer from slow running - to keep you safe and alive, is just unbelievable. This is money-saving, planning and bureaucracy gone mad!
We are not saying that hard shoulders are totally safe, of course they are not, and people have unfortunately died after being hit while on the hard shoulder, but they are a
lot
safer than no hard shoulder at all, even with the so-called 'Emergency Areas', which can never make up for a continuous hard shoulder. If stopping on a Hard Shoulder is dangerous, think how dangerous it must be having to stop in a 'live' - 70+mph - lane!
On a 'Smart (dumb) Motorway', there is absolutely nowhere for a driver and occupants to go in the case of a breakdown or accident, unless lucky enough to come to a stop next to one of the 'Emergency Areas', making them extremely dangerous. Having to stop, for any reason, in a 'live lane', with vehicles travelling at 70mph (or more) behind and to at least one side of you is putting anyone in or around the vehicle in question in a potential deadly accident situation - an accident which can happen
very
quickly. Trying to get yourself and possibly small children out of your vehicle would be pretty much impossible - and virtually suicidal - not that staying in it would be much better! These things have to be stopped - and changed back!
Normal (single carriageway) roads often have grassy or other areas where a vehicle can pull off onto in the case of an accident or breakdown. Plus of course, all of the traffic is following them on that lane, so can see when something has happened, or is slowed by the traffic between them and the incident, whereas with two or more fast lanes, drivers are concentrating on what is immediately in front and to the side of them; they cannot see several vehicles ahead in their own lane and, usually travelling a lot faster, the first thing they might know is when the vehicle in front brakes suddenly and/or swerves to miss (or hits) a stopped vehicle, or vehicles, giving them no time to do the same, or possibly anywhere to swerve to!
That doesn't generally happen on normal single carriageway roads. Dual carriageways are also dangerous, especially if they are surrounded by armco, but there are (usually) less lanes and often somewhere to get out of the way. It would be nice to have hard shoulders on dual carriageways as well, but realistically, it's not going to happen, due to lack of space and the immense cost involved.
So, motorways need to be made safer, by reinstating the hard shoulder. Let's make this happen - sign the petition at:
Change.org/Scrap Dangerous Smart Motorways today! (Opens in new window)
Safety for 25 and under drivers
This will clearly divide opinion, but restricting 25 year old (and under) drivers to only taking passengers who are over 25 (plus exemptions, like their parents, partner, own children, people who work together, etc.), has been put forward as an idea to reduce accidents involving 25s and under. Generally, most people do not like restrictions and, if you are 25 or under, this will clearly not be popular, but we would suggest that this should be seriously considered, as it has the potential to reduce the number of accidents, injuries and deaths to these drivers and their passengers, which is one of the worst groups of people as far as road accidents go, often killing one or more of their passengers. We support this suggestion, provided it is intelligently thought through and, if implemented, suitably policed - i.e., properly and seriously, but
not
with a heavy hand!
Railways
As a bigger picture view and policy, we want to see more emphasis and money invested in the rail network, to help reduce pollution, traffic and wear and tear on the roads and to make them a safer place for motorists and other road users. Investing in and increasing the rail network would help reduce road use and wear and tear and reduce CO2 release and pollution. Provided it is done with the inclusion and agreement of local communities at the planning stages, this would be a win-win for virtually everyone - and the planet
This, combined with laws and slowly increasing charges for freight on the road - especially for the larger long-distance trucks, both within this country and those going to or coming from Europe - would help get large, long-distance trucks off our roads, making them safer and far easier and cheaper to maintain in good condition and improve our environment in the long run.
Long-distance freight should never have gone on the roads in the first place, lets get it back on the railways where it belongs and use trucks for local deliveries only. We call on the government to take back ownership of the railways, to invest in them and new (UK made!) rolling stock, bringing much needed skilled jobs to the UK too. This will make life easier for commuters, bring costs down (if run properly!) and help get long-distance freight off the roads and back onto the rail network.
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