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| There are some
very basic question that need answering, like... who should support such a
road safety scheme?... why would they support such a scheme?... what will
the future be like if we stay on our present course? The next few years will bring a
whole raft of changes which will makes some very fundamental changes to
your life... so we will try to give some possible answers.
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| Where we are
now... there have been no significant reductions in the rate of road
accidents for quite some time... despite a huge increase in the the number of
Fines, Points and Driving Bans. Apart from a much greater chance of
losing your licence... if you are a part of the law-abiding
majority you will also be paying an Insurance surcharge to cover uninsured
drivers... while the Fine for those having no Insurance... is actually being reduced.
There are now about 2 million illegal drivers in Britain... with no MOT,
Tax, Insurance, not Registered... who drive how they like... park where
they like... and what are the Authorities doing to combat this
problem? Not very much!
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| Where we're
heading... this problem will only get worse. The Government pass more
and more Laws... and they will, increasingly, use various new technologies, like...
ISA, GPS, black-boxes, cameras, etc... in order to... monitor, control and
punish you. A real Big-Brother scenario! Car ownership will
become increasingly expensive... with pay-as-you-drive Insurance,
road-pricing and congestion charging... and there will be little you can
do about it unless you choose to join the growing ranks of illegal drivers. Of
all the problems you encounter on a daily basis as a driver... these
technologies won't alleviate any of them.
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| Alternative.
We believe their approach is completely warped... that, if anything, technology should be
used to empower the law-abiding majority... encouraging people to become
Active Citizens... working with the Authorities... and targeting those who
wilfully break the law. A system that can significantly reduce the
level of fatalities... can deal with any problem on the roads... while still
applying some basic commonsense... and without costing a fortune.
This kind of system is not pro-car... or anti-car... it is quite possible to go out and
enjoy the driving experience without sacrificing road safety.
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Developing the
Project.
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All these sections are intertwined to a certain
extent. Part of The Project would be to develop a new, highly inter-active
Website... and to develop and refine the Concept. So, this section is
really concentrating on ways to publicise and promote the existence of the
Website... and spreading the word about the Concept.
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This section is more about ways to support The
Project. These could be... Helping to
spread the Word... Giving us some
Feedback... Letting us know
your Ideas... Your Opinions... Supplying
Content... Writing... Re-writing... Becoming
Politically Active... Making a
Donation... Forming a
Group... etc. etc.
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Building support. It is our intention to build from the ground
up. That means we start with the general Public... get their Ideas and
Opinions first. Once we have a 'reasonable level' of public support we can move on to... the
Media: Police: Motoring Organisations: Road Safety Organisations: and
the like... who we can expect to look into the Concept in much more detail... and be
much more critical. Finally... we can start to tackle Governments at State or
National level: [not to say that we will be able to control things in exactly
this way.]
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The whole idea of Road Supervisors relies on a large number of people
being prepared to get involved in their own communities... or at least in
the things that directly affect them. If you cannot even generate enough
interest for people to say that they support what you are trying to achieve...
then it would be virtually impossible to get them to actively participate in a
system. It's
also unlikely that those at the centre of Government will take you very
seriously... unless there is obviously quite substantial support for the
objectives.
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If you've read 'The Concept' and agree with the basic
objectives... then please let us know via one of our
Feedback Forms
and... if you feel so inclined... have a look through our 'Help
Us' section... to see what else you might like to do.
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Raising funds... it is entirely possibly that the
Financial viability of the Network will need to rely on voluntary Donations from those who
support our basic objectives.
Running a Network such as this without an income is absolutely
impossible. Costs are incurred on an ongoing basis. When the Website has been suitably
developed it is possible we may be able to generate some income from Advertisers
or Sponsors. However... latest figures about generating advertising revenues on
the Internet are far from encouraging... unless the website is highly focused on
a profitable niche market... or, it is getting, literally,
millions of hits a day. If you would like to assist
this Project by making a Donation: just click Here.
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Developing the Website.
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One of the main unknown factors is the Internet
itself... it changes year by year... and the prospect of new innovative
solutions opens up. We envisage the vast majority of what we hope to achieve:
[in
spreading the Word: gaining Support: raising Funds: co-ordinating Efforts:
facilitating Ideas: monitoring Progress: publicising News: etc. etc,] being
done via the
Internet.
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It is not our intention to launch our Website with a great deal
of fanfare and publicity... this all takes Time... and costs Money. We look at
the launch as more like pushing a snowball down a hill... small and slow
to start with... but steadily building up... gaining momentum... until it becomes a force in
its own right. [Initially... it may be that we are not geared up to deal with a
large number of visitors and so could easily be overwhelmed and lose potential supporters.
By building up slowly we will have more time to iron out any problems.] In time we hope that the Website will be... Professional,
Functional, Interactive and Reliable enough to cope with any demand.
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The Internet means... we do not need to have the same structure as Organisations
from the past... whereby supporters take their lead from some centralized
committee. Supporters can act in a completely autonomous way... making
contact with like minded people, whether this is down to... locality, age,
interests, common problems, experience, etc... and contributing whatever they
feel they can... or just let us know how they are progressing if they are
embarking on their own local campaign.
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| Implementation. |
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How a Government went about implementing a Concept like this would
be different in every country... but it is not something that we believe is
technically difficult. The stages they would probably need to go through
would be something like...
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* Their own Study and Consultation Process.
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* The drafting of a Legal Document.
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* Writing a Road Supervisor's 'Handbook'.
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* Recruiting sufficient numbers of 'Road Supervisors'.
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* Recruiting and Training 'Senior Road Supervisors'.
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* Recruiting and Training volunteers for 'Review Panels'.
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* Developing a range of courses for 'problem' drivers.
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* Build an Internet Website.
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* Issue a booklet for all drivers... about the 'New System'.
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* Instigate a 3-6 month trial period... to iron out problems.
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* Set up a Monitoring Committee... to study progress.
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* Implementation... Bring it Online!!
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If a Government
were to introduce this scheme and it did show a significant
improvement in the accident rate... then this would give us even more impetus to
have it introduced in other places.
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