Thread by @markandcharlie

Right then, I've held off commenting on this to give myself a decent amount of time to think about what I would have spent the budget on instead of this 👇, & why if @TfL want more harmony on their roads they need to come away from asking drivers to "think" and be afraid instead

https://twitter.com/VCCP/status/1461002960788459522

First we need to see that the film addresses merely a symptom of the problem at hand, which is offending #driverbehaviour. Remove the causational factor & you remove the consequences, that is what they have failed to do. As for the reaction shown from the #vulnerableroaduser you

will never eradicate that, for it is a normal expected reaction to having one's life engangered, you cannot stop an evolutionary response, "fight or flight", even trained officers like myself will struggle not to react when the adrenaline kicks in & nature takes over. You

cannot expect people to do the near impossible so now let's look at what they should have done.
Instead of focusing on the consequences of the offending they should of focused on eradicating the actual offence. Best way to change #driverbehaviour is to engage another basic

instinct... fear, in this case fear of prosecution. Asking drivers nicely is a waste of time, 60 years of safety campaigns are testiment to this.
So I would have produced a film showing the offence, the resulting reaction but then followed it with a #3rdpartyreporting prosecution

being carried out as a result. I would show similar offences being filmed & reported by all manner of road users to reinforce the probability that if drivers offend they will be caught & prosecuted, changing behaviours, eliminating the offence & the symptom shown in the @TfL film

And to satisfy those who will inevitably say "what about dangerous cyclists" I would give a sum of money to the police to carry out covert operations to catch cyclists contravening red lights at pedestrian crossing locations, which is the only manner of offending where we see

a #vulnerableroaduser causing danger to others. Again if this was done & correctly publicised it would change the offending behaviour involved through fear of prosecution. So to sum up, remove the endangering behaviour & you remove the response/consequences bringing the desired

outcome from the money spent. The only other way to achieve the desired outcome of more "harmonious" roads in the capital is to remove the danger by using separating dedicated infrastructure, which protects cyclists but ultimately still leaves other #vulnerableroadusers at risk,

.. pedestrians & motorcyclists will still have to suffer the endangering behaviours & subsequent consequences. Also let's not forget that if a film concentrated on #3rdpartyreporting & the "martini effect" the ever increasing threat of prosecution, "anytime, anyplace anywhere"

then it would all deal with driver vs driver endangerment & consequences, further reducing demand. 👍 So its great that @TfL want to change behaviour, they just need to concentrate on the actual behaviour that matters, endangering #driverbehaviour & role out more dedicated

infrastructure that reduces the threat from offending drivers. Making behaviour changing films & campaigns is hard, I know I've been involved many over the years but it's dissapointing to see money wasted.
Right then back to watching the darts 🎯 on ITV 4 with @nedboulting 👍 😂