Something about safety

For those of us old enough to remember, John Major introduced the Cones Hotline in 1992. Road users could report traffic cones on the roads where there were no roadworks in place. Widely seen as a phenomenal waste of money and largely ignored by its target audience, the service was disbanded 3 years later.

It wasn’t a bad idea but inevitably technology took over and a phoneline was never going to survive in the digital era. But what of the cones that that were causing such consternation amongst road users?

An American invention from the 1940s, the cone was first used in the UK in 1958 during construction of the M6. When you realise that the humble traffic cone is designed to save lives it’s hard to justify being critical about their use. Indeed, generally speaking, a large proportion of the roadworks that hold us up are driven by a desire for a safer road network (pot holes, resurfacing, improved lighting etc).

Shortly after the introduction of the traffic cone, high-vis came on the scene in the mid-sixties.

It’s surprising that the invention (not to mention the inventor himself) survived given early iterations used his wife’s wedding dress.

As brilliant as these ideas may be, their invention just addresses the symptom, not the cause, of the problem. Hi-vis clothing is designed so that drivers can see the workers in the road and not hit them. Cones are designed so that drivers know there are roadworks ahead and to slow down. There is nothing more important than the safety and protection of workers so these inventions should be applauded and not complained about on a hotline.

The real question though, is why not try to fix the cause of the problem? If there were no vehicles on the road then there would be no accidents but clearly that’s never going to happen. But we might be able to move the traffic away from the roadworks and therefore the workers. No-one wants to be stuck in traffic so why not alert the road users that there’s work going on ahead and they should find another way to avoid the queue. Better still, why not feed the Navigation devices so that they can do the hard work of finding a better route?

Reduce the delays + Reduce the frustration + Reduce the verbal and physical abuse = Increased safety!

Now, if only there was an invention that could do this…