Rutherford’s manifesto: Part II

1) The next Government must issue annual reports spelling out exactly how much money each ruling administration pulls in car and motoring-related taxes charges, fees, fines and other money-making scams. The same Government must publish details of what that money was spent on each year.

Local councils, the Police and DVLA should also disclose what profits they make from drivers.

Only then will we know exactly what’s being taken from vehicle owners and drivers, and what we are being handed back by way of better, safer, smoother roads.

2) Cars, small vans and bikes need to be separated from lorries and vice versa. Therefore the sooner we have truck only lanes on motorways, the better. The truckers would only be allowed in lane one and all of them must do a minimum speed of 56mph so that they don’t hold-up HGVs behind them.

If some lorries cannot or will not do a steady 56 mph, they will have to use alternative route such as A- roads.Those truckers who stay on the motorway but don’t do a steady 56mph must be ordered to leave by Highways Agency officers.

3) The Department for Transport, Highways Agency, motoring organisations, Police, local councils, pressure groups and other interested parties ought to team-up in a ge nuine effort to improve traffic flows and speed up journey times.

Stop-start traffic benefits nobody. And a vehicle that’s stuck in a jam is wasting much more fuel and pumping out far more pollution that a vehicle travelling at a steady speed on a free flowing road.

4) Road safety lessons, cycling proficiency tests and first aid courses need to be made available for all school kids in Britain.

Sixth form students could also study driving theory in the classroom as well as after school sessions behind the wheel…. with qualified instructors. Driving schools, motor manufacturers and local dealers would happily help fund some of these programmes.

5) Allow traffic to turn left at a red light when it doesn’t interfere with other pedestrians and vehicles would free-up vehicles which are stuck at junctions despite the fact that the road ahead of them is clear. This system works well in countries such as America so why not here?

6) Every driver must sit an annual driving appraisal lasting just one hour. I’m not talking about re-taking the driving test. I’m suggesting that we can all become a bit stale or slip into bad habits, so a yearly evaluation to assess how we’re doing.

7) Bus lanes have got to be banned. Why should a person receiving a free or heavily subsidised ride on a bus have priority over an unsubsidised driver who owns a car, van or truck.

8) More motorways are needed and if necessary they can go underground. If places such as London and Newcastle can have trains that run beneath the surface, why can’t these and other cities have underground road networks.

9) Every speed limit, sign and traffic light in every village, town and city needs reviewing. Some of Britain’s speed limits are dangerously slow and can result in nasty rear end shunts. Other maximum speeds are scarily fast.

10) Since successive Governments have proved that they have little interest in motoring and don’t know how to manage the roads, steps should be taken for the people who’ve paid for them - drivers - to inherit them from the state and run them ourselves.

Every single one of our streets has been bought and paid for several times over by road users who’ve stumped-up hundreds of billions in vehicle and highway taxes over the decades. All I’m suggesting is that we’re handed back what belongs to us so that we - rather the clueless Departm ent for Transport, local councils and other no hopers - can run the roads ourselves.

You know it makes sense.