Despite expert input and public consultation, the new Rules Of the Road leaves a lot to be desired, writes John Wheeler
It is now 14 years since the current edition of the Rules of the Road first saw the light of day. By 1997 it had been re-printed seven times, with few significant changes.
More than 10 years ago the inadequacies of the publication were acknowledged and I was one of a group asked to make submissions for the next edition. For a long time after very little happened.
Recently, however, the Department of Transport published a "draft revised version" on its website for a "public consultation period" after which, it is to be forwarded to design consultants to update the photographs and illustrations.
They have their work cut out. The public had just four weeks, until June 30th, to send in their submissions to this 95-page document.
Unfortunately, the entire document is verbose: really important points are camouflaged deep within wordy, unnecessarily detailed and technical text blocks that the public will find hard to decipher. What has been produced resembles a detailed manual for a very complex car. What road users need is a clear, comprehensible guide.
There is a comprehensive penalty points system. It lists each of the penalty points offences and the fixed charge offences, the name of the offence, the number of points payable on a fixed charge or on conviction in a court and the amounts in each case as well as, in the case of fixed charges, whether they are enforced by a local authority or the gardai.
Less comprehensively, it mentions vehicles owned and used by exempted persons but we are none the wiser who they are, if indeed they really need mentioning at all.
It would be more to the point if these six pages highlighted some fundamental issues concerning road use.
For example, we are told that you must hold a current provisional licence in order to take the driving test when we all thought you needed one to be on the road in the first place.
The greatest disappointment of all is to find that after so long a wait for up-to-date rules, after so much protracted roads legislation, we remain firmly in the dark ages:
• the application for a driving licence still does not require you to confirm that you have read, learned and understand the Rules of the Road.
• holders of second provisional licences can still drive unaccompanied. But while a 16-year-old can only drive a 50cc moped, s/he can drive a tractor, which could these days weigh 10 or more tons, towing an even heavier-laden trailer, unaccompanied and on a provisional licence.
• we persist in having the highest permissible blood alcohol level in the EU.
• motorcycles remain excluded from bus lanes where most car drivers would prefer them to be.
Unfortunately there are none of the suggestions we would like to see. Such as suggesting, in the nicest way possible of course, that pedal cyclists really should not totally disregard traffic lights, that really it is not nice to ride against the traffic flow, the wrong way up one way streets nor use the pavement as an additional lane.
We need in the Rules of the Road the same clear, unambiguous level of communication we have seen in recent road safety TV campaigns such as in the Just One More Drink ad.
If the Department cannot bring themselves up to that level of communication then we could save a lot of innocent trees being felled for yet another missed opportunity.
Indeed, in comparison to what is being proposed, the current booklet is passably good. And that's damning praise indeed.
The Future
B5 BIODIESEL A mixture of 95 per cent diesel fuel and 5 per cent vegetable or animal fat-based fuels.
Advantages: Made from domestically produced agricultural sources. It can reduce some types of tailpipe emissions.
Disadvantages: Biodiesel increases NOx, or oxides of nitrogen, a precursor to smog.
BATTERY A power storage device made from either lead-acid, nickel-metal hybrid or lithium ion.
Advantages: When used with a hybrid engine, it reduces pollution and increases fuel economy.
Disadvantages: Heavy, expensive and have a limited life. Hybrid cars are still expensive to produce.
E85 ETHANOL A mixture of 85 per cent ethanol produced from corn and 15 per cent petrol.
Advantages: Gives farmers more potential customers and markets for their crops.
Disadvantages: Slow rollout of filling stations. Some academic experts claim that it takes more energy to produce a litre of ethanol than it returns.
HYDROGEN A fuel than can be used in gas or liquid form to produce electricity to power an electric motor, or it can be used as a gas to fuel an internal combustion engine.
Advantages: No harmful tailpipe emissions.
Disadvantages: Still hugely expensive to produce and store.